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The  Educational  Value 
of  Museums 

Newark  Museum  Association 


in  2007  with  funding  from 
IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.archive.org/details/educationalvalueOOconnric 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums 


The 
Educational  Value  of  Museums 


By 

Louise  Connolly 

Edited  and  with  an  Introduction  by 

J.  C.  Dana 


Newark,  N.  J. 

The  Newark  Museum  Association 

1914 


V 


^?,2>' 


CX 


Contents 


Page 

Introduction    vii 

The   Educational    A'alue   of   Museums — Summary 

of  Content   1 

The  Report 5 

Old  Museums  and  New 5 

The  Old  Smithsonian  and  the  Old  Patent  Office.  5 

Good  Museums  Waited  on  Good  Teaching 6 

Light  Obtained  from  Museum  History 8 

Light  Obtained  from  Museum  Psychology. ...  9 

Museums  Based  on  the  Hoarding  Instinct. .  9 

Museums  Based  on  Exclusive  Possession . .  10 

Museums  Inspiring  Wonder 11 

Classes  of  Museums  Visited 12 

Museums  Founded  by  Colleges 12 

Museums  Endowed  by  Individuals 13 

Museums  Made  by  the  People 14 

Conditions  of  Museums  Visited 15 

Dead  Museums   15 

Live  Museums   16 

The  Tendency  to  Die 16 

The  Education  of  a  City 17 

The  City's  Need  of  Education   17 

The  Possibilities  of  Educating  the  City 19 

The  Agencies  for  Educating  the  City 20 

The  Museum's  Part  in  Educating  the  City 21 

Progress  of  Education  by  Museums 22 

Where  Museum  Teaching  Shall  Begin 23 

The  Aim  of  Museum  Teaching 24 

Learning  by  Doing 26 

The  Doctrine  of  Interest 27 

The  Method  of  Presentation 28 

The  Curator 28 

Teaching  Through  the  Ear :  The  Docent ....  29 

V 


Page 

Teaching  Through  the  Eye:  The  Arrange- 
ment      29 

Devices  in  Museum  Teaching  31 

Classification  of  Devices  31 

List  of  Devices 31 

Co-operations  of  Educational  Agencies 38 

The  Agencies  Involved 38 

Extent  of  Co-operative  Work 39 

The  Attitude  of  Libraries 41 

The  Attitude  of  Museums 42 

The  Attitude  of  Schools 47 

Difficulties  in  Securing  Co-operation 48 

Applications  to  Newark  Museums  50 

Their  Obvious  Advantages 50 

The  Inevitable  Growth  of  Any  Museum. ...  50 

Disadvantages  of  the  Newark  Museums .  ^ . . . .  52 

Suggestions  for  the  Newark  Museums 53 

General  Scope  of  These  Museums 53 

Art   54 

Industry    56 

Science 58 

Specific  Suggestions  for  These  Museums ...  61 

Children's  Room   61 

Habitat  Group 61 

Educational  Work   62 

Minerals  62 

Sculpture 62 

Nature  and  Science  Room  63 

Animal  Exhibits  63 

Industrial  Exhibits  64 

Exhibits  of  Habitations  of  Man 65 

Botany    66 

Hygiene,  Education,  etc 66 

Museum  Loans  67 

Leading  to  Other  Museums 67 


Introduction 

We  should  try  to  develop,  here  in  Newark,  a  group  of 
museums,  in  the  fields  of  art,  science  and  industry,  of 
the  modern  type.  Our  Newark  museums,  that  is,  should 
be  of  immediate  practical  value  to  Newark  citizens,  old 
and  young.  They  should  appeal  to  all  of  us,  to  the 
newer  people  as  well  as  the  older.  They  should  reflect 
our  industries,  be  stimulating  and  helpful  to  our  w^ork- 
ers,  and  promote  an  interest  here  and  elsewhere  in  the 
products  of  our  own  shops.  They  should  be  the  hand- 
maidens of  our  schools,  helping  to  discover  among  our 
thousands  of  young  people  those  tastes  and  talents 
which  may  lead  them  to  such  accomplishments  as  will 
bring  profit,  credit  and  civility  to  our  city.  Our 
museums  should  do  these  things  in  all  the  fields  they 
touch:  in  fine  art,  in  the  applied  arts,  in  industry,  in 
the  mere  making  of  honest  goods  which  is  itself  a  fine 
art,  and  in  pure  and  applied  science. 

In  thus  describing  in  broad  terms  the  kinds  of 
museums  we  should  try  to  create  here,  I  speak  with  con- 
siderable assurance.  But,  while  we  who  are  daily  at 
work  upon  our  very  modest  museum  beginnings  feel 
quite  sure  tlvat  we  know  in  a  general  way  toward  what 
end  we  should  proceed,  we  find  it  difficult  to  discover 
the  details  with  which  we  may  most  wisely  first  con- 
cern ourselves.  This  difficulty  was  most  keenly  felt 
when  we  faced,  a  year  ago,  the  fact  that  our  collections 
and  cases  were  growing  very  rapidly,  that  we  had  one 
more  small  room  only  into  which  we  could  expand  and 
that  we  must  there,  so  far  as  possible,  suggest  to  the 
public  the  character  of  the  work  we  believe  the  associa- 
tion should  take  up  as  it  grows  and  expands  in  later 
years — the  work,  that  is,  which  lies  outside  and  beyond 

VII 


the  obviously  proper  fields  of  sculpture,  painting,  pure 
and  applied  science,  already  outlined  briefly  but  plainly 
by  our  very  small  permanent  exhibits. 

Much  study  and  many  discussions  had  led  us,  as  I 
have  said,  to  certain  general  conclusions  as  to  the  pro- 
per treatment  of  this  last  available  space.  But  we 
lacked  assurance  in  details,  just  as  we  lacked  assur- 
ance concerning  the  details  of  the  whole  scheme  of 
modern,  live,  popular,  teaching  and  inspiring  museums 
which  we  had  long  before  agreed  should  be  the  aim  of 
this  association. 

At  this  crisis  I  was  fortunately  able  to  send  Miss 
Louise  Connolly,  educational  expert  of  the  Free  Public 
Library,  on  a  tour  of  inspection  of  some  fifteen  or 
twenty  of  the  museums  of  the  country,  and  to  get  from 
her  a  report  on  the  very  questions  we  were  facing. 

Miss  Connolly,  while  not  a  specialist  in  any  branch 
of  art  or  science  or  industry,  has  knowledge  of  schol- 
arly quality  in  all  three,  and  of  considerable  depth  in 
the  last  two,  having  taken  two  degrees  in  science, 
worked  as  a  student  in  the  National  Museums,  and 
assisted  the  late  Dr.  Henry  Gannett  in  the  writing  of  his 
Commercial  Geography.  She  has  also  been  for  years  a 
teacher  and  superintendent  in  the  public  schools  of  New 
Jersey.  And  she  was  trained  under  the  late  W.  B. 
Powell,  Superintendent  of  the  Washington  Schools,  in 
such  employment  of  museums  and  government  agencies 
for  the  education  of  the  young  as  has  probably  never 
been  duplicated  in  America.  For  the  purpose  of  this 
inquiry,  the  close  relations  of  the  museums  and  the 
Public  Library  enabled  us  to  obtain  Miss  Connolly's 
services  for  an  investigation  into  what  modern  museums 
are  preaching  and  practising  as  to  their  educational 
functions. 

VIII 


Miss  Connolly  read  the  Directory  of  American 
Museums,  and  marked  the  names  of  82  museums  which 
seemed  likely  to  yield  profit  along  the  line  of  our 
inquiry.  To  these  she  wrote,  asking  for  information, 
either  through  printed  matter  or  by  letter,  on  the 
special  features  of  their  educational  activities.  To 
these  queries  she  received  in  reply  74  letters  and  130 
printed  documents  of  more  or  less  relevance.  These  she 
read,  marking  passages  of  interest,  and  from  the  study 
of  these  and  other  sources  of  information  was  made  a 
tentative  itinerary,  later  revised  and  expanded. 

She  visited  first,  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art, 
the  New  York  Zoological  Park,  the  American  Museum 
of  Natural  History,  the  Aquarium,  the  Children's 
Museum  in  Bedford  Park,  Brooklyn,  the  Museum  of  the 
Brooklyn  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  the  Industrial 
Museum  of  Cooper  Union,  and  the  museum  collected  by 
the  New  Jersey  Department  of  Education  at  Trenton. 

Then  she  took  a  short  eastern  trip  including,  in  Bos- 
ton, the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  the  Museum  of  Natural 
History  and  the  Children's  Museum ;  in  Worcester,  the 
Art  Museum,  the  Museum  of  the  Natural  History  Asso- 
ciation, and  the  Children's  Museum  of  Clark  Univers- 
ity ;  in  Providence,  the  Roger  Williams  Park  Museums ; 
in  Washington,  D.  C,  the  Smithsonian,  and  its  Chil- 
dren's Room,  the  National  Museum,  including  the 
departments  of  geology,  biology  and  ethnology,  and  the 
Bureau  of  Education ;  in  Philadelphia,  the  Academy  of 
Fine  Arts  Museum,  its  Alumni  Club,  the  Commercial 
Department  of  the  Philadelphia  Museums,  the  Museum 
of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  and  the  Wagner 
Free  Institute  of  Sciences.  She  already  knew  fairly 
well  the  work  of  the  Museum  in  Fairmount  Park  and 
that  of  the  Drexel  Institute. 

IX 


On  this  trip,  with  a  narrower  view  of  the  field  to  be 
covered  than  was  later  obtained,  agencies  other  than 
museums  were  only  incidentally  included.  But,  even 
so,  some  investigation  was  made  of  library  and  school 
relations  in  New  York  and  Brooklyn;  the  Boston 
Library,  a  girls'  manual  training  school  in  Worcester, 
the  Providence  Library,  and  the  Carnegie  Library  of 
Washington  were  seen;  extramural  school  activities 
in  Washington  were  investigated ;  the  librarian  in  Phil- 
adelphia, and  three  of  his  librarians  and  the  Secretary 
of  the  Alumni  Club  in  Philadelphia  were  interviewed. 
This  trip  consumed  eight  days,  from  September  29  to 
October  6  inclusive. 

The  western  trip  included:  In  Detroit,  the  Art 
Museum,  the  office  of  the  Superintendent  of  Schools, 
the  Public  Library,  and  a  visit  to  the  site  of  the  future 
Fine  Arts  Centre;  in  Toledo,  the  Museum  of  Art,  the 
Library,  and  the  Superintendent  of  Schools ;  in  Indian- 
apolis, the  Herron  Art  Institute,  the  offices  of  the  Art 
Supervisor,  and  the  Supervisor  of  Nature  Study,  a  semi- 
industrial  school,  and  the  Public  Library ;  in  Richmond, 
Indiana,  the  home  of  Mrs.  Johnson,  who  inaugurated 
and  conducts  the  museum  movement  there,  the  Art 
Museum,  the  Sujjervisor  of  Public  School  Art,  and  the 
Public  Library;  in  Cincinnati,  the  Art  Museum  of  the 
Cincinnati  Museum  Association,  the  Art  School,  the 
Rookwood  Pottery,  the  Supervisor  of  Art  in  the  Public 
Schools,  and  the  Public  Library;  in  Pittsburgh,  the 
Public  Library,  the  Library  School,  the  museums  of  Art 
and  Science,  and  two  branch  libraries. 

After  her  return  she  visited  the  Museum  of  Plain- 
field,  N.  J.,  and  the  new  Art  Museum  at  Montclair. 

In  all,  65  visits  were  made,  35  of  them  to  museums, 
including  zoological  collections. 


Miss  Beers,  Principal  of  Elmwood  School  at  Buffalo, 
had  been  engaged  for  several  months'  work  at  this 
museum,  and  as  she  had  visited  Chicago,  just  previous 
to  coming  here,  she  was  asked  to  report  upon  both 
Buffalo  and  Chicago.  St.  Louis  publishes  very  full 
accounts  of  its  work.  From  these  sources,  therefore,  a 
fairly  intelligent  inclusion  of  St.  Louis,  Buffalo,  and 
Chicago  was  made. 

If  it  seems  strange '  that  a  person  could  make  65 
inspections  in  20  days,  in  which  were  included  2,500 
miles  of  travel,  it  must  be  remembered  that  this  was 
not  a  search  for  details  in  mounting  specimens  or  in 
methods  of  covering  walls,  or  in  the  best  way  of  dis- 
playing jade,  or  in  any  other  feature  of  museum  admin- 
istration. Neither  was  it  an  attempt  to  investigate  the 
qualifications  of  future  possible  employees.  Many 
things  picked  up  by  the  way,  had  they  been  the  object 
of  these  tours,  would  have  taken  longer  to  gain  in  sys- 
tematic shape.  The  trained  supervisor  of  any  subject 
perceives  certain  things  about  his  specialty  at  once. 
To  quote  from  one  of  Miss  Connolly's  letters  written 
daily  to  me  en  route,  "  I  spent,  in  several  places,  quad- 
ruple the  time  I  needed  to  discover  what  I  wanted, 
as  a  matter  of  courtesy,  or  to  gain  interesting  observa- 
tional by-products." 

On  her  return,  she  read  what  other  people  have  had 
to  say,  during  recent  years,  on  museums.  This  reading 
included  many  magazine  articles,  the  seven  volumes  of 
the  proceedings  of  the  American  Museum  Association, 
recent  years  of  the  English  Museum  Journal  and  such 
other  general  museum  literature  as  is  here  available  in 
English. 

She  then  wrote  a  short  formal  report  upon  her  inves- 
tigations, addressed  to  me,  which,  at  my  request,  she 

XI 


expanded  and  made  more  informal  in  style,  that  it 
might  the  more  readily  engage  the  attention  of  those 
not  already  versed  in  the  subject.  1  asked  her,  that  is, 
to  furnish  us  with  a  report  which  would  be  of  interest 
and  value,  first  to  us  who  are  trying  to  work  out  a 
theory  of  educational  museums,  and  next  to  the  gen- 
eral public,  and  especially  to  our  clientele  and  support- 
ers, the  general  public  of  Newark. 

Her  report  did  for  us  two  things.  It  told  us  that 
the  conclusions  we  had  drawn  from  reading,  study,  and 
general  observations,  as  to  the  modern  trend  in  museum 
development,  the  conclusions  which  had  led  us  to  agree 
on  the  general  character  which  should  distinguish 
Newark's  museums — it  told  us  that  these  conclusions 
are  in  harmony  with  the  best  modern  practice  and 
especially  with  the  wishes,  which  have  in  many  cases 
not  yet  been  realized,  of  the  more  advanced  and 
approved  of  museum  workers. 

It  told  us  also  quite  definitely  how  we  should  develop 
the  plans  we  had  made  for  our  one  available  room. 
These  plans  have  been  thus  developed  in  accordance 
with  this  advice,  and  partly  worked  out,  with  results 
that  seem  to  prove  their  correctness. 

We  have  not  fulfilled  every  detail  of  the  suggestions 
given  in  the  report,  partly  for  lack  of  space,  partly  for 
lack  of  time,  partly  for  lack  of  money,  and  partly 
because  we  have  wished  to  move  slowly  and  to  keep  our 
minds  open  to  outside  suggestions  of  need  or  oppor- 
tunity, in  accordance  with  the  advice  on  p.  59  of  this 
report. 

At  present  we  have,  in  what  the  Report  calls  the 
Northeast  Room,  the  nuclei  of  several  museums,  whose 
method  and  scope  are  there  plainly  defined.  A  card  on 
the  door  announces : 

XII 


Take  note  that  in  this  room  the  exhibits  tell  several 
interesting  stories : 

1.  The  evolution  of  pottery  and  textiles  from  the 
shredded  palm  leaf  to  the  Trenton  potteries  and  the 
Newark  looms. 

2.  The  ways  in  which  uncivilized  men  adapt  their 
homes  to  their  circumstances,  and  use  what  they  can 
get  to  make  their  livings. 

3.  How  creatures  live  in  the  water. 

4.  How  insects  serve  or  injure  men,  and  how  cun- 
ningly they  are  adapted  to  their  surroundings. 

5.  How  birds  live  and  travel. 

6.  How  artists  use  insects,  birds  and  fishes. 

These  stories,  and  several  others  since  added,  are 
told:  1.  As  far  as  possible,  by  things;  2.  When  things 
cannot  be  obtained,  by  pictures;  3.  Where  neither 
things  nor  pictures  can  serve,  by  words. 

The  room  is  already  the  haunt  of  a  number  of  young 
people  who  come  again  and  again  to  pore  over  its  cases. 
And  it  attracts  parents,  teachers,  and  working  men  as 
none  of  the  other  collections  has  ever  done. 

I  quote  the  conclusion  of  Miss  Connolly's  first  report : 

^'In  my  journeys  1  have  met  with  much  courtesy  and 
kindness  from  many  sources.  The  great  institutions 
have  taken  my  mission  as  seriously  as  though  I  repre- 
sented millions  of  investment,  and  the  small  museums 
have  given  freely  in  time  and  service.  And  whenever 
I  have  mentioned  interest  in  the  educational  aspects  of 
musum  work,  I  have  found  my  specialty  treated  as 
respectfully  as  though  it  were  Renaissance  Paintings 
or  the  Agricultural  Implements  of  the  Aztecs.  From 
this  little  experience  T  am  sure  that  you  are  safe  in 
believing  that  there  is  a  great  unanimity  of  sentiment 
in  favor  of  the  conscious  educational  mission  of  all 

XIII 


museums,  and  a  warm  and  practically  proven  spirit  of 
brotherhood  among  museum  officials.  If,  in  vour  small 
beginnings,  you  need  help,  advice,  loans,  or  exchanges, 
you  will  get  them  readily  and  to  the  limit  of  the  pow- 
ers of  those  from  whom  you  solicit  by  applying  to  any 
museum  anywhere  in  the  United  States. 

"Permit  me  to  thank  you  for  sending  me  on  this  inter- 
esting mission,  and  for  giving  me  freedom  to  pursue  my 
inquiries  in  my  own  way.  I  sincerely  hope  that  the 
museum  may  profit  half  as  much  through  this  very 
incomplete  report  as  I  have  profited  from  the  experi- 
ences on  which  it  is  based.'' 

The  reports  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Association  of 
American  Museums  have  been  especially  helpful  to  us 
in  all  our  inquiries  and  experiments,  and  Miss  Con- 
nolly asks  me  to  add  to  ours  her  very  special  acknowl- 
edgments of  help  therefrom.  Mr.  Paul  M.  Rea,  of 
Charleston,  S.  C,  the  secretary  of  the  Association,  was 
kind  enough  to  let  us  have,  long  before  its  publication, 
an  advance  copy  of  his  Report  on  the  Educational 
Work  of  American  Museums.  From  it  Miss  Connolly 
drew  much  help  in  making  her  report,  and  we  found  it 
suggestive  and  stimulating  in  our  work. 

J.  C.  D. 
Newark,  N.  J.,  November,  1914. 


XIV 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums 


'•    •       »     » 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums 


Summary  of  Content 

The  introduction  by  another  hand  obviates  the  neces- 
sity of  giving  details  as  to  the  journeys  made;  I  there- 
fore proceed  at  once  to  give  the  results  of  these  jour 
neys  in  facts  observed  and  opinions  gleaned. 

The  work  called  for  was  a  report  upon  the  educa- 
tional function  of  American  Museums;  not  with  the 
intent  of  giving  a  detailed  account  of  all  the  educa- 
tional work  of  each  museum,  but  for  the  purpose  of 
finding  what  is  the  trend  of  opinion  and  practice  among 
progressive  institutions  and  what  Newark  should  do 
to  start  wisely. 

No  one,  however  predisposed,  could  take  such  a  trip 
as  this  without  becoming  deeply  impressed  by  the  una- 
nimity and  energy  with  which  American  museums  are 
engaging  in  active  educational  work.  And  the  same 
thing  is  true  of  many  museums  in  Europe  and  in  Asia. 

The  study  of  the  best  of  this  work  leads  inevitably 
to  the  conclusion  that  Newark  should  establish,  on  the 
foundations  already  laid,  the  following: 

I.     A  museum  of  art,  including 
A.     Fine  art,  consisting  of 

1.  Copies  of  typical  great  statues 

2.  Copies  of  typical  great  paintings 

3.  A   few   specimens   of   current   work   in 

painting  and  in  sculpture 

4.  Large  numbers  of  photographs  and  other 

cheap  reproductions,  for  lending,  by 
which  the  history  of  art,  the  work  of 
artists  and  the  principles  of  art  can 
be  exemplified. 


The  Newark  Museum  Association 


B.     Applied  art,  consisting  of 

1.  A  general  study  of  applied  art 

a.  Synopses  of  the  history  of  art  as 

applied  to  pottery,  textiles,  &c., 
in  originals  and  copies 

b.  S^^nopses  of  the  applied  arts  of  the 

several  nations,  eminent  in  this 
line 

c.  Synopses  of  the  methods  used  in 

applying  art  to  different  mate- 
rials and  classes  of  objects 

2.  A  special  study  of  the  applications  of 

art  in  Newark,  with  examples  from 
Newark  factories  and  copies  of  origi- 
nals, old  and  modern,  from  this  and 
other  countries,  of  work  in  the  same 
field  as  that  from  the  Newark  facto- 
ries. 

II.     A  museum  of  science,  including 
A.     General  science,  consisting  of 

1.  A  synoptical  collection  of 

a.  minerals 

b.  plants 

c.  animals 

illustrating  very  concisely  the 
accepted  classifications  in  each 
kingdom,  and  simply  labeled.  All 
amplifications  of  this  synopsis  to 
be  kept  in  drawers  or  closets  for 
use  of  students ;  but  the  synopsis 
itself  to  be  so  simple  in  extent 
and  in  labels  as  to  instruct  the 
most  ignorant  layman 

2.  Collections  exemplifying  the  dynamics 

of  each  science,  as,  for  example,  the 
steps  w^hereby  mud  becomes  slate, 
sand    becomes    sandstone,    the    seed 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  3 

becomes  a  plant,  and  the  fauna  fits 
itself  to  its  environment 
3.  Collections  showing  how  man  uses  his 
knowledge  of  nature's  laws  to  modify 
the  products  of  nature,  as  in  the  cul- 
tivation of  plants,  the  artificial  selec- 
tion by  which  new  varieties  of  animals 
are  developed,  and  the  physical  and 
psychic  improvement  of  the  human 
species,  as  in  the  prevention  and  cure 
of  disease,  and  in  physical  and  intel- 
lectual education. 

B.     Local  science,  consisting  of 

1.  Collections  showing  the  peculiarities  of 

the  geographic  unit  to  which  Newark 
belongs 

2.  Collections    for   lending   suited    to   the 

expressed  needs  of  the  schools  of  New- 
ark, public,  parochial,  or  private; 
elementary,  secondary,  or  collegiate, 
as  these  shall  arise. 

III.     A  museum  of  industry,  including 

A.  General  industry,  consisting  of 

1.  A  synoptical  collection  showing  types  of 

the  simple  operations  underlying  the 
several  industries 

2.  A    sj^noptical    collection    showing    the 

stages  of  development  by  which  pres- 
ent processes  grew  out  of  these  sim- 
ple operations. 

B.  Local  industry,  showing 

1.  The  variety  of  the  industries  of  Newark 

and  her  industrial  suburbs 

2.  The  steps  or  stages  in  each  manufacture, 

in  so  far  as  this  is  consistent  with 
goo<l  business 


The  Newark  Museum  Association 


3.    The  sources  of  materials  used  and  the 

destinations  of  products 
4^    The  extent  of  Newark's  trade 
a.    The  routes  followed  bj  her  imports  and 

exports 
6.    The  historr  of  Neirarii's  industrial  derel- 


It  will  be  apparent  that  there  is  here  no  suggesti<m 
that  these  nraseoms  shall  strire  after  the  wonderful^ 
the  eostlj,  or  the  rare  in  an j  of  these  collections.  The 
fact  that  there  is  in  Newark  an  association  able  to  care 
for  such  things  will  doubtless  bring  them  as  presents 
or  bequests;  but^  according  to  the  plan  abore  outlined, 

ewill,  on  acceptance,  be  so  fitted  into  the  above 
me  that  ther  maj  be  used  as  means  of  instruction, 
er  than  displayed  as  matters  of  astonishment. 
Throughout  the  report  emphasis  is  laid  on  the  advisa- 
bilitj  of  keeping  the  abilities  of  the  imisenm  staff  ahead 
of  the  amount  of  material  shown.  Already  the  Newark 
contains  more  objects  than  the  present  corps 
handle  to  best  adrantage  for  the  instruction  of  tiie 
Tisitors  who  now  inspect  them.  And  each  rear  this 
dJsadTantage  will  prore  a  more  serious  hindrance  to 
the  object  at  present  jmramount  in  the  minds  of 
educators. 


The  Report 

Old  Museums  and  New 

The  study  of  present  day  museums  leads  one  to  recall 
the  museums  of  the  past.  They  contained  the  elements 
of  the  types  of  museums  met  with  to-day. 

The  Old  Smithsonian  and  the  Old  Patent  Office 

A  half  century  ago  visitors  to  the  National  Capital 
used  to  be  shown  the  Smithsonian.  It  sat,  far  removed 
from  man's  daily  life,  on  "The  Island,"  as  southern 
Washington  was  then  called,  and  was  approached 
across  a  quagmire  of  red  Potomac  mud,  over  which  in 
course  of  time  an  insecure  plank  path  gave  perilous 
footing. 

Not  only  was  it  inaccessible;  it  was  also  intensely 
gloomy,  a  dark  brown  castle  with  forbidding  Towei*s, 
and  windows  that  begrudged  the  light.  Once  entered, 
it  was  repellent  within.  It  contained  many  and  varied 
objects  symmetrically  arranged  in  cases,  and  a  col- 
lection of  formidable  looking  Indian  portraits.  Chil- 
dren shrank  from  its  portals,  and  honeymoon  travelers 
felt  in  leaving  it  a  sense  of  escape. 

Culture  for  culture's  sake  was  what  the  Smithsonian 
meant  to  its  lay  visitors.  Young  people  led  through  it 
contracted,  not  the  museum  habit,  but  museophobia,  a 
horror  of  museums. 

In  the  same  city,  in  the  Patent  Office,  visitors  gained 
an  experience  of  another  sort.  The  building  is  white, 
being  an  example  of  the  Greek  architecture  employed 
by  our  forefathers  for  public  buildings,  with  a  row  of 
beautiful  Doric  columns  on  its  eastern  side.  Such 
buildings  produce  a  certain  aesthetic  pleasure  in  nearly 
all  who  approach  them. 


The  Newark  Museum  Association 


The  "model  room"  in  this  building  was,  for  children, 
a  realm  of  bliss.  In  those  days  an  inventor  not  only 
wrote  a  specification  and  made  a  drawing,  as  now;  he 
also  caused  to  be  made  a  model  of  his  invention.  And, 
in  many  cases  in  the  "Blue  Koom,"  were  installed  won- 
derful wooden  models  of  all  manner  of  devices.  The 
anxiety  of  the  modern  museum  curator  to  cajole  the 
young  into  attendance  forms  an  amusing  contrast  to 
the  struggle  of  the  Patent  Office  watchmen  in  those 
days  to  keep  children  out  I  There  was  a  continual  skir- 
mish at  the  eight  entrances  of  the  building  between  the 
children  of  the  city,  besieging  the  place  to  study  and 
enjoy  these  models,  and  the  corps  of  devoted  doorkeep- 
ers, defenders  of  the  palace  of  delight.  Here  were 
pygmy  harvesters,  ploughs,  corn  buskers,  looms,  churns, 
clothes  wringers, — lilliputian  machines  of  every  descrip- 
tion that  would  certainly  "go"  if  one  might  lay  hands 
on  them. 

Good  Museums  Waited  on  Good  Teaching 

It  seems  strange  that  the  hint  contained  in  these  two 
contrasting  exhibits,  and  in  the  very  different  reactions 
which  they  produced  in  their  visitors  should  not,  a  gen- 
eration ago,  have  led  to  the  inventing  of  the  modern 
museum. 

Perhaps  the  failure  to  do  this  was  but  part  of  the 
general  condition  of  things  at  a  time  when  there  was 
little  knowledge  of  how  any  teaching  should  be  done. 
Smithson's  object  was  "the  diffusion  of  knowledge"; 
but  none  knew  how  to  diffuse  that  commodity  with 
efficiencv. 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  7 

Then  came  the  modern  movement  in  pedagogy.  Tt 
took  off  the  shackles  of  dead  forms  that  had  trammeled 
the  feet  of  teachers,  and  bade  them  walk.  Some  do  not 
know  to  this  day  that  their  feet  are  free;  but  many  are 
treading  with  firm  step  the  uphill  path  that  leads  to 
high  achievement,  just  because  they  know  enough  to 
study  the  child  as  well  as  the  subject. 

To-day  when  a  modern  teacher  says  to  a  child,  "What 
is  a  lake?"  he  expects  the  child  to  search  through  his 
short  experience,  recall  the  memory  of  the  thing  corre- 
sponding to  the  word  ''lake,"  and,  by  the  means  at  his 
command,  express  the  picture  in  comprehensible  terms. 

If  he  says  "I  kin  show  you  one,"  or  "I  kin  drawr 
one,"  or  'Vlt's  a  little  one  by  the  Monument  and  a  big 
one  in  Sojer's  Home,"  or  ''It's  made  of  water  and  it  fills 
a  wide  hole,"  the  teacher  so  questions  and  encourages 
him  that  within  a  few  seconds  he  achieves  an  answer, 
correct  in  both  substance  and  form. 

So  we  take  our  children  to  see  the  real  thing,  what- 
ever it  may  be,  and  then  to  the  museum  where  hand 
specimens  of  it  may  be  found  to  remind  us  of  it,  and 
then  we  reduce  our  knowledge  of  it  to  language,  and, 
finally,  we  look  into  books  to  be  reminded  by  language 
of  our  experience-gained  knowledge. 

The  whole  city  administration  in  any  progressive  city 
is  a  museum.  A  class  reciting  upon  the  function  of 
courts  has  seen  a  court  in  session.  The  city  itself  is  a 
still  larger  and  fuller  museum.  A  class  desiring  to 
sketch  trees  sits  in  the  park  or  on  its  school-house  door- 
step for  the  lesson.  A  class  in  United  States  history 
gathers  about  the  statue  of  Washington.  Rivers  are 
studied  on  a  river's  brink. 


8  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

So  through  their  own  observation  of  the  response 
given  to  their  efforts,  and  through  the  diffusion  of  ideas 
as  to  how  the  people  should  be  taught,  museums  have 
been  slow^ly  led  to  the  revolution  which  is  now  going  on 
in  their  conduct. 

Light  Obtained  from  Museum  History 

Before  the  itinerary  for  this  mission  was  made  out, 
a  book  was  consulted — a  book  full  of  romantic  interest. 
Some  dramatist  or  epic  poet  should  draw  from  it  mate- 
rial for  his  verse.  Neither  Iliad  nor  Odyssey  w^as 
drawn  from  such  a  fountain  of  human  experience  as  is 
here  contained.  It  would  well  reward  the  researches 
^f  a  Kipling,  a  Shaw  or  a  Galsworthy.  The  book  is 
called  ^'A  Directory  of  American  Museums"  and  was 
published  in  1910  by  the  Buffalo  Society  of  Natural 
Sciences  for  the  American  Association  of  Museums. 

Here  one  may  read,  in  trenchant  statement,  how  the 
only  son  of  his  parents,  as  they  took  him  about  the 
world  in  search  of  health,  collected  in  his  travels  speci- 
mens of  this  and  that,  and  on  his  return  from  the  other- 
wise fruitless  voyage,  engaged  his  w^eary  hours  in  label- 
ing and  placing  them ;  and  how,  when  he  left  them,  the 
parents  enshrined  these  objects  of  his  last  interest  in  a 
memorial  museum,  dedicated  to  the  use  of  other  lads 
who  might  take  up  his  interests  in  the  years  to  come. 

And  here  is  told  the  story  of  the  business  man,  set 
free  by  success  from  a  toil  that  had  engaged  his  lesser 
powers,  who  spent  the  last  years  of  life  in  an  avocation 
which  his  soul  knew  for  its  real  vocation.  And  his  wife 
made  permanent  his  achievement  by  placing  a  museum 
in  his  native  town. 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  9 

And  here  is  the  tale  of  a  financial  king,  who  hired  a 
plodding  scholar,  gave  him  leave  to  grub  in  field  or  lab- 
oratory, and  whose  name  now  shines  upon  a  museum 
fagade  by  virtue  of  the  scientific  collection  made  in  his 
behalf  by  the  modest  scientist,  who  will  himself  ever 
be  unhonored  and  unknown. 

This  book  shows  plainly  that  most  museums  have 
been  founded  in  the  sincere  desire  to  serve  the  men  of 
the  future  by  preserving  for  their  inspection  the  things 
of  the  past.  And  no  less  plainly  it  shows  that  the  few 
who  felt  this  desire  have  usually  had  to  struggle 
against  indifference,  misunderstanding,  and  adversity 
to  achieve  their  purpose. 

For  years  the  trustees  of  the  Newark  Museum  have 
been  feeling  about  for  a  foundation,  however  narrow, 
on  which  to  plant  the  corner  stone  of  their  hope  that 
Newark  may  one  day  have  a  group  of  useful  museums 
as  a  centre  for  the  instruction  of  her  citizens. 

They  may  well  have  faith  that  the  institution  in  their 
charge,  already  so  gratefully  and  graciously  received 
by  the  Newark  public  and  Newark's  administration, 
will  grow  and  flourish  and  become  what  they  desire  far 
sooner  and  with  far  less  struggle  than  have  most  of  the 
museums  whose  histories  are  outlined  in  this  wonderful 
record. 

Light  Obtained  from  Museum  Psychology 

Museums  Based  on  the  Hoarding  Instinct 

The  tendency  to  hoard,  merely  for  the  sake  of  hoard- 
ing, antedates  humanity.  It  is  common  to  the  squirrel 
and  the  magpie.  And  those  who  would  aiucate  accord- 
ing to  the  culture  epoch  theory  make  pft)vision  for  the 


10  The  Newark  Museum  Association 


period  of  ''collections."  The  boy  makes  miscellaneous 
hoardings  of  string,  and  top,  of  knife  and  ball;  boys 
and  girls  make  stamp  collections;  in  the  days  of  our 
mothers  little  girls  had  strings  of  buttons  and  "traded 
duplicates"  as  shrewdly  as  any  adult  coin  collector. 
The  hoarding's  the  thing,  not  the  value  of  the  hoard. 

This  tendency  to  collect  is  the  psychological  basis 
of  the  museum. 

That  museums,  thus  based,  are  not  more  common,  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  tendency  is  far  from  universal. 
H.  G.  Wells,  in  his  novel,  "Passionate  Friends,"  shows 
how  unwillingly  some  lads  are  forced,  by  external  pres- 
sure, into  accommodation  to  type  in  this  respect. 

Museums  Based  on  Elxclusive  Possession 

Of  apparently  human  origin  is  that  desire  to  own 
and  cherish  which  has  its  chief  basis  in  the  fact  that  by 
its  gratification  others  are  prevented  from  possession. 
True,  food  and  mate  are  thus  exclusively  possessed  by 
some  of  the  lower  animals;  but  rarely  anything  else. 
Yet  few  are  willing  to  gloat  in  secret  over  an  exclusive 
possession.  The  sweetness  of  ownership  can  be  fully 
savored  only  when  non-possessing  spectators  admire. 
The  miser,  w^ho  hides  his  hoardings,  is  an  abnormality. 
This  spirit  of  exclusive  possession,  widely  indulged  in 
some  degree,  is  the  second  tendency  underlying  the  crea- 
tion of  the  museum. 

In  an  art  museum  within  ten  miles  of  one  of  the 
world's  greatest  art  collections,  is  a  room  devoted  to 
thirty  or  fort}'  old  masters,  most  of  them  second-rate 
works  by  second-rate  men.  The  curator  was  asked, 
"Could  the  daughter  of  a  moderately  successful  man, 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  11 

rising  from  the  ranks  and  totally  unacquainted  with 
art,  prepare  herself  in  your  gallery  for  a  year's  study 
of  paintings  in  Europe?" 

"Well,"  said  he,  "she  could  get  some  things  here;  but 
of  course  she  would  also  do  well  to  visit  the  X  gallery, 
since  it  is  so  near."  "Then,"  said  his  questioner,  "don't 
you  really  think  you  had  better  sell  these  old  masters 
to  the  X  collection  and  buy  things  to  fill  in  the  gaps 
in  your  modern  collection?" 

"Oh,  no !"  said  he,  ''Oh,  no  I  We  have  two  So-and-so's, 
and  there  are  only  twenty  in  the  world !" 

On  the  other  hand,  when  Pittsburgh  was  visited,  the 
director  of  the  Science  Museum  was  away  on  a  several 
months'  visit  to  the  King  of  Spain  for  whom  he  was 
setting  up  a  "copy" — and  there  are  many  such  copies — 
of  the  Diplodocus  Carnegii. 

Museums  Inspiring  Wonder 

Over  the  entrance  to  the  Children's  Room  in  the 
Smithsonian  at  Washington,  is  placed  the  adage,  "Won- 
der is  the  beginning  of  Wisdom,"  probably  a  paraphras'e 
of  the  usual  rendering  of  Aristotle's  "Knowledge  begins 
in  W^onder";  and  Dr.  Bather,  the  English  museum 
expert,  notes  that  several  of  the  most  famous  museums 
of  the  world,  as  those  of  London  and  Paris,  were  begun 
as  collections  of  "curious"  things  brought  from  distant 
places  during  the  period  of  colonial  expansion. 


Until  quite  recent  times  these  three  tendencies, 
Hoarding,  Exclusive  Ownership  and  Wonder,  were 
represented  by  most  of  the  world's  great  museums,  and 
they  influence  largely  the  conduct  even  of  the  most  mod- 
ern. 


12  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

Classes  of  Museums  Visited 

To  those  who  only  occasionally,  and  at  long  intervals, 
visit  museums  there  doubtless  appears  to  be  great  sim- 
ilarity among  them.  But  a  systematic  survey  reveals 
differences  that  sharply  classify  them  both  according 
to  their  present  condition  and  to  the  inherent  qualities 
due  to  their  origins. 

Museums  Founded  by  Colleges 

In  the  days  of  our  fathers,  when  a  taste  for  science 
meant  a  pleasure  in  running  down,  classifying  and 
labeling,  museums  arose  based  on  the  necessity  for  own- 
ing the  means  of  identification.  Such  museums  were 
established  in  high  schools  and  colleges.  But  their 
value  depended  entirely  upon  the  use  to  which  they 
were  put,  and  that  use  waxed  and  waned  with  the  per- 
sonnel of  the  teaching  staff. 

Once  a  visiting  lecturer  needed  a  set  of  geologic  speci- 
mens wherewith  to  illustrate  a  little  talk  to  teachers 
on  geography.  She  was  referred  to  the  high  school 
teacher  of  physical  geograph3\ 

"Sir,"  said  she,  "I  want  a  bottle  of  sand,  pieces  of 
sandstone,  conglomerate,  and  coquina;  and  specimens 
of  granite,  gneiss,  an.d  marble." 

"Do  you  know  those  things  when  you  see  them?"  said 
he.  "I  do,"  said  she.  "Then  take  these  keys  and  select 
them,"  said  he.  "I  don't  know  one  of  them  by  sight." 
"But,  excuse  me,"  said  she,  "I  thought  you  were  the 
teacher  of  physical  geography."  "So  I  am,  but  I  know 
nothing  about  the  subject.  They  appointed  me  to  teach 
it  because  I  had  so  many  vacant  periods.  I  am  a 
teacher  of  Greek !" 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  13 

Not  all  science  collections,  gathered  by  enthusiasts 
and  deposited  in  the  precarious  custody  of  a  shifting 
school  faculty,  meet  such  inclement  conditions  as  these; 
but  the  situation  illustrates  a  general  possibility. 
School  and  college  museums,  per  se,  often  do  not  flour- 
ish, because  they  do  not  meet  a  permanent  need. 

Museums   Endowed   by   Individuals 

Then  there  is  the  endowed  museum.  Some  worthy 
soul  conceives  the  idea  that  enduring  honor  for  his 
name  may  best  be  obtained  by  the  endowment  of  a 
museum.  So,  in  the  midst  of  some  valley  which  pro- 
duced him,  or  of  some  city  whose  prosperity  and  whose 
slums  he  produced,  he  sets  one.  And  the  people  gaze 
at  it,  and  wander  through  it — and  go  away. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  feats  in  the  world  for 
any  curator,  however  devoted  he  and  his  staff  may  be, 
to  get  people  fully  to  use  an  endowed  museum. 

A  docent  from  one  of  the  largest  endowed  institutions 
in  the  world  asked  the  director  of  one  of  the  tiniest, 
"Is  it  any  better  when  the  second  generation  comes 
along?  Have  they  any  more  of  the  feeling  that  the 
thing  is  theirs,  any  more  real  interest  in  it?" 

"No,"  said  the  director,  "I'm  afraid  they  have  not. 
Some  say  the  donor  took  all  he  had  from  the  necessi- 
ties of  the  poor,  and  is  ostentatiously  giving  back  a 
little  in  the  form  of  things  that  they  do  not  feel  the 
need  of;  and  some  say  that  he  evidently  felt  twinges 
at  getting  more  than  his  share.  But  all  use  the 
museum  of  his  gift  with  languid  interest,  as  a  thing 
external  to  their  lives,  and  condescendingly,  as  though 
the  favor  were  theirs  in  using  it  at  all." 


14  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

The  more  conspicuously  the  object  in  question  is  an 
individual  gift,  the  more  emphatic  is  this  attitude.  It 
seems  to  be  less  felt  when  the  gift  is  to  the  place  of 
birth  than  when  it  is  to  the  place  where  the  fortune 
was  made. 

"Now  Johnnie,"  says  the  mother,  when  the  home 
place  museum,  or  library,  or  high  school  opens,  ''When 
you  go  out  into  the  world  and  make  your  fortune,  see 
that  you  too  remember  to  be  grateful  to  the  old  home 
and  the  old  people." 

Museums  Made  by  the  People 

Finally  comes  the  museum  founded  and  supported 
bj'  "the  people."  There  are  two  ways  in  which  the  peo- 
ple may  contribute  to  a  museum.  The  city  fathers  may 
appropriate  city  taxes  for  it,  or  a  group  of  interested 
citizens  may  raise  the  money  for  it  by  subscription. 

It  is  rarely  that  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  com- 
munity awakens  to  an  educational  need  as  to  make  the 
first  method  feasible  at  once.  Usually  some  small 
group,  frequently  inspired  by  one  ardent  soul,  sees  the 
vision,  and  labors  to  actualize  it.  Such  labor  may  be 
a  long  struggle,  apparently  ineffective  and  ever  to  be 
unrewarded.  Kead  the  romantic  story,  recently  pub- 
lished, of  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art. 

When,  after  such  a  struggle,  the  city  does  take  hold, 
the  structure  that  rises  has  sure  foundations  in  the 
affection  and  interest  of  the  city's  best  citizens,  both 
rich  and  poor. 

Yet  each  museum  was  a  vision  for  some  one  before 
it  was  an  actuality  for  everyone,  and  in  the  prosaic  col- 
umns of  museum  statistics  manv  of  those  transforma- 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  15 

tions  are  depicted  by  which  out  of  the  struggle  of  a 
single  life  came  an  institution  helpful  to  the  many. 

Conditions  of  Museums  Visited 

It  is  easy  to  discover  by  reading  their  reports,  or  by 
even  a  most  cursory  visit,  that  museums  are  of  two 
kinds — living  and  dead. 

Dead  Museums 

There  is  the  finished  museum,  in  which  were  placed 
by  some  benevolent  or  ambitious  founder  a  number  of 
objects  of  more  or  less  value,  to  which  nothing  of  note 
has  since  been  added  and  from  which  nothing  has  been 
subtracted.  The  people  of  the  place  take  visitors,  com- 
ing from  a  distance,  to  see  it,  and  occasionally  give  to 
it  embarrassing  possessions  that  they  think  are  appro- 
priate to  its  supposed  function ;  but  no  one  makes  any 
practical  use  of  these  accessions.  There  is  a  saying  that 
''a  completed  museum  is  a  dead  museum";  but  this  is 
not  always  true. 

And  there  is  the  museum  once  used  in  teaching,  now 
dust-laden  and  forlorn,  the  teacher  who  knew  its  uses 
being  departed.  And  there  is  the  collection  once  served 
by  a  volunteer  curator  or  kept  up  by  the  annual  dona- 
tions of  some  enthusiastic  citizen,  now  neglected  like  an 
orphan    on   the   doorstep  of   an   uninterested    public. 

Everywhere  are  found  these  defunct  or  still-born  ven- 
tures, always  dead  either  for  lack  of  the  person  whose 
spirit  constituted  their  vital  power  or,  quite  as  often, 
from  a  plethora  of  "things"  which  overwhelm  even  the 
most  energetic  staff. 


16  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

Live  Museums 

A  live  museum,  whether  "completed"  or  not  so  far 
as  its  collections  are  concerned,  is  one  to  which  the 
public  comes,  either  for  pleasure  or  instruction;  or  to 
which  students  come  for  the  identification  of  specimens 
or  for  information  on  classification;  or  wherein  a 
scholar  dwells,  engaged  in  research  in  some  special 
field,  and  storing  his  findings  in  his  museum  for  the 
use  of  other  specialists  of  like  kind  with  himself. 

The  Fairbanks  Museum  of  St.  Johnsburj,  Vermont, 
while  quite  frankly  ''completed,"  having  been  con- 
demned to  remain  much  as  its  founder  left  it,  has  yet 
become  noted  for  its  vitality  because  of  the  educational 
work  which  centred  in  it  during  the  curatorship  of  a 
woman  with  the  museum  gift.  And  though  the  Museum 
of  the  Society  of  Natural  History  in  Boston  does  not 
usually  betray  its  liveliness  to  the  casual  visitor,  the 
student  who  has  occasion  to  use  it  finds  its  curator 
alertly  responsive  to  his  needs. 

The  Tendency  to  Die 

Like  other  institutions  which  use  the  crystallized 
products  of  enthusiasm,  a  museum  tends,  when  it  has 
once  materialized,  to  become  a  "completed"  and,  soon 
thereafter,  a  dead  thing.  Here  are  so  many  cases,  as 
nearly  as  may  be  dust-  and  germ-proof,  wherein  rest  so 
Hiany  things.  They  are  "kept"  by  curators,  and  may 
be  seen  by  the  curious  between  such  and  such  hours  on 
such  and  such  days.  Once  upon  a  time  schools  were 
"kept"  also,  and  to  much  the  same  sad  end.  In  them 
the  wisdom  of  the  past  was  "imparted,"  and  by  them 
none  was  inspired  to  learn. 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  17 

''To  my  mind,"  says  Professor  T.  H.  Montgomery, 
in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  of  July,  1911,  "a 
museum  that  consists  mainly  of  collections  and  of  sim- 
ple caretakers  of  these  has  a  speaking  resemblance  to 
a  graveyard." 

Perhaps  the  term  "dead"  has  been  used  unadvis- 
edly. The  story  of  the  Museum  of  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  told  by  Mr.  Rea  before  the  American  Asso- 
ciation of  Museums  in  1912,  in  which  he  spoke  of  "the 
nurture  and  development  of  the  Museum  under  the 
auspices  successively  of  the  Library  Society,  the  Lit- 
erary and  Philosophical  Society,  the  Medical  College, 
and  the  College  of  Charleston,  and  how  the  community 
rallied  to  its  support  in  times  of  stress  through  pop- 
ular subscriptions  and  state  and  city  appropriations," 
proves  that  a  museum,  while  apparently  dead,  may  be 
but  a  Sleeping  Beauty,  awaiting  only  the  kiss  of  the 
Prince  to  arise  again  to  happiness  and  service. 

The  Education  of  a  City 

We  see  what  our  predispositions  enable  us  to  see. 
In  Jennette  Lee's  novel  "The  Taste  of  Apples,"  the 
old  New  England  shoemaker  interprets  all  Europe  by 
its  boots.  The  mission  of  inspection  of  which  this 
paper  is  a  result  was  foreordained  to  discover  in 
museums  the  educational  aspect. 

The  City's  Need  of  Education 

It  is  not  difficult  for  any  enlightened  citizen  to 
look  upon  a  city  like  Newark,  70%  of  whose  citizens 
are  of  foreign  parentage,  the  majority  of  whose  adult 
inhabitants  are  engaged  in  productive  toil,  which  con- 


18  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

tains  no  college,  which  within  a  few  years  had  onh^  one 
high  school,  the  metropolis  of  a  state  which  offers  no 
college  opportunities  for  women,  as  a  vast  school. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  manj  of  Newark's  adult  chil- 
dren need  instruction  on  essential  matters.  In  spite 
of  the  prosperity  that  blesses  us,  we  cannot  deny  that 
there  is  some  financial  distress  in  the  city ;  but  one  who 
watches  Newark  afoot  is  most  deeply  impressed  with 
that  poverty  which  shows,  not  in  inability  to  buy,  but 
in  ignorance  of  what  to  buy. 

And  these  crowds  upon  the  street  are  the  active 
minded ;  they  are  learning  daily  by  observation  and 
comparison,  and  are  being  sharpened  constantly  by 
attrition.  You  maj'  see  them  grow  in  knowledge  and 
discernment  as  you  gaze.  The  librarians  can  tell  you 
that  their  children  are  Newark's  literary  class,  devour- 
ing a  major  percentage  of  the  seriously  cultural  books 
circulated  in  the  city. 

But,  behind  this  class  of  peripatetic  students  there 
are  masses  of  unseen  ignorance — starving  souls  at 
washtubs,  starving  hearts  at  forges,  starving  minds 
feeding  the  machines  that  produce  the  city's  wealth. 

Undoubtedly'  these  people  need  education.  If  you 
think  any  of  them  are  too  old  to  take  it,  observe  the 
transformation  effected,  not  only  in  dress  and  carriage, 
but  in  manner  and  speech  also,  in  the  mother  of  any 
family  of  your  acquaintance  that  has  achieved  recent 
advance  in  fortune. 

Indeed,  in  a  school  like  this  we  are  all  pupils;  for 
there  is  not  one  of  us  but  is  in  some  respects  a  child — 
undeveloped  in  some  essential  element  necessary  to 
complete  enlightenment.     I  am  a  child  in  handicraft, 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  19 

you  in  musical  appreciation,  he  in  history  of  art,  she 
in  the  elements  of  good  citizenship.  We  all  need,  and 
that  upon  some  vital  point,  elementary  instruction. 

The  Possibilities  of  Educating  the  City 

We  need  not  be  discouraged  at  these  four  hundred 
thousand  pupils,  who  are  our  very  selves,  with  their 
deep  and  manifold  emptinesses.  Nothing  is  more  dis- 
heartening to  the  teacher  than  a  horde  of  a  thousand 
children,  in  incoherent  mass.  But,  divide  them  into 
classes,  and  look  into  the  faces  of  any  forty  of  these 
children,  and  you  discover  that  you  are  looking  into  the 
eyes  of  forty  angels,  ready  to  grow  in  strength  and 
beauty  and  grace  under  your  leadership. 

Fortunately,  not  all  of  the  four  hundred  thousand 
of  us  must  be  taught  the  same  lesson  at  the  same  time. 
Some  have  already  piety,  some  good  manners,  some 
love  of  beauty,  some  manual  skill,  some  political  acu- 
men, some  musical  appreciation.  The  fact  that  we 
come  from  many  lands  ensures  this  varied  culture.  And 
almost  all  of  us  are  ready  to  learn. 

The  discerning  museum  attendant  plays  a  game  simi- 
lar to  that  involving  the  question,  ''If  not  yourself  wlio 
would  you  rather  be?"  and  gets  some  surprising 
answers.  This  mild-looking  gentleman  has  an  interest 
in  fire  arms.  Here  is  a  lawyer  chiefly  interested  in 
what  pertains  to  the  sea.  "Don't  you  think,"  says  a 
lady  who  has  never  traveled  farther  than  to  New  York, 
"that  India  is  the  most  interesting  country  in  the 
world?"  "What  I've  always  really  wanted,"  says  a  city 
clergyman,  "is  to  keep  goats." 

An  assistant  in  the  Cincinnati  Art  Museum  tells  of 


20  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

several  farmers  who  floated  up  to  the  heights  whereon 
that  collection  dwells,  and  who,  after  gazing  about  in 
the  hall  of  Greek  Sculpture  and  seeming  particularly 
impressed  with  the  Parthenon  frieze,  appealed  thus  to 
her,  "What  are  they  all  about,  and  why  do  you  keep 
them?" 

The  Agencies  for  Educating  the  City 

Who  are  the  teachers  in  this  our  civic  school? 

Among  the  foremost  are  the  three  classes  of  profes- 
sionals, the  clergymen,  priests  and  rabbis,  chosen  by 
groups  of  the  people  themselves  to  instruct  them  in 
religion,  ethics  and  morality,  the  school  teachers, 
whether  public,  private  or  parochial,  trained,  let  us 
hope,  and  experienced  in  the  methods  of  child-culture, 
and  the  newspapers  self-appointed,  but  assured  instruc- 
tors of  all  the  people.  Then  the  librarians,  paid  from 
the  taxes  to  supply  good  books  to  those  who  need  them. 
Then  the  many  appointed  or  self-appointed  enlighten- 
ers  of  public  opinion,  such  as  settlement  workers,  tene- 
ment house  inspectors,  public  welfare  committees,  shade 
tree  commissions,  park  commissions,  playground  con- 
ductors, women's  and  men's  self-improvement  or  civic- 
improvement  clubs,  under  whatever  name  they  flourish. 
Then  every  steady,  honest  workman,  turning  out  real 
goods,  and  every  clever  merchant,  showing  good  things 
in  artistic  display,  and  every  square-dealing  politician, 
preaching  the  best  political  economy  that  he  can  learu, 
and  every  conscientious  housewife  training  her  family 
and  her  dependents  to  gentle  manners  and  thrifty  hab- 
its, and  every  man  on  the  street  who  sets  an  example 
of  patience  and  courtesy  under  trial. 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  21 

These  unintentional  teachers,  however,  being  unsys- 
tematized in  method,  need  not  engage  us.  Our  concern 
is  with  the  processes  of  teaching  by  design.  Clearly, 
from  this  standpoint  every  one  who  feels  the  need  of 
others  is  thereby  called  to  teach.  And  this  sort  of  good 
citizenship  is  increasing  among  us. 

The  Museum's  Part  in  Educating  the  City 

The  specific  demand  upon  any  society  that  calls 
itself  a  museum  association  is  for  definite  and  adequate 
methods  of  visual  instruction,  chiefly  by  means  of  dis- 
plays of  collected  objects. 

This  instruction  may  be  given  in  at  least  three  ways : 

(1)  To  original  investigators,  by  museum  special- 
ists engaged  in  research. 

(2)  To  students,  by  collections  and  curators  of 
special  equipment. 

(3)  To  the  laity,  both  adult  and  juvenile,  by  col- 
lections and  guides  available  to  all. 

Dr.  Arthur  Bather,  of  the  British  Museum  Associa- 
tion, in  his  President's  Address  at  the  Aberdeen  Con- 
ference of  1903,  after  enumerating  the  three  divisions 
of  a  museum  as  (1)  a  stored  series,  accessible  only 
to  investigators,  (2)  an  exhibited  series,  intended  for 
the  instruction  of  students,  but  denied  to  the  public, 
(3)  a  smaller  series  of  carefully  selected  objects,  so 
displayed  as  to  make  the  utmost  appeal  to  the  great 
public,  advises  the  curator  of  a  small  museum  thus: 

'^Ask  yourself  which  of  these  three  functions  your 
museum  is  intended  to  fulfill,  which  of  these  classes 
forms  the  majority  of  its  visitors,  or  which  of  them  you 
most  desire  to  serve.    Confine  your  efforts  at  the  most 


22  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

to  two  of  these  functions;  but  at  am^  rate  fix  on  one 
of  them  and,  devoting  most  of  your  energy  to  that, 
arrange  your  collections  accordingly." 

According  to  this  advice,  it  is  evident  that  it  will  be 
long  before  the  Newark  museums  will  attempt  the  first 
function,  that  of  sharing  with  special  investigators  the 
results  of  original  research.  As  to  the  second  function. 
Dr.  Disbrow's  collection  already  does  work  in  identifi- 
cation, and  high  schools  science  teachers  bid  fair  so 
to  use  it  as  far  as  it  is  able  to  serve  them.  This  is  the 
easiest  of  all  functions  to  perform. 

It  is  with  the  third  function,  the  instruction  of  the 

I   "great  public,"  that  this  investigation  is  chiefly  con- 

j  cemed. 

^ —  Progress  of  Education  by  Museums 

For  many  j-ears  this  subject  of  institutional  use 
has  been  talked  about.  In  1893,  Mr.  Edward  S.  Morse 
published  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  an  article  entitled 
"If  Public  Libraries,  why  not  Public  Museums?"  And 
Mr.  Ashley,  of  Demarest,  N.  J.,  at  the  Philadelphia 
meeting  of  the  American  Association  of  Museums,  in 
1913,  declared  that  that  article  had  great  influence  in 
accelerating  the  trend  toward  better  museum  aids  in 
public  school  teaching,  although  it  did  not  produce 
popular  interest  in  the  establishment  of  museums  in 
small  towns  and  villages. 

But  the  fact  is  that  although  everyone  in  the  museum 
world  is  discussing  this  function,  so  foreign  is  it  to  the 
habits  of  thoughts  of  museum  trustees  and  curators, 
and  so  unprepared  to  understand  it  is  the  "great  pub- 
lic," even  that  part  of  the  public  engaged  in  teaching, 
that  it  will  be  many  years  before  it  will  be  fully  exer- 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  23 

cised.    The  teaching  function  of  the  American  Museum 
is  still  in  its  infancy. 

Speaking  as  a  teacher,  one  would  say  that  this  is 
largely  due  to  lack  of  pedagogic  knowledge  and  skill 
on  the  part  of  the  museums,  a  lack  not  to  be  condemned 
at  this  stage  of  the  world's  advancement. 

Where   Museum  Teaching  Shall   Begin 

One  of  the  first  requisites  of  the  teacher  is  that  he 
shall  know  the  teaching  point  of  his  pupils.  ''When  I 
get  a  class  of  forty  freshmen  from  a  number  of  gram- 
mar schools,  and  they  are  all  in  different  stages  of 
development,  where  shall  I  begin  to  teach?"  said  the 
high  school  teacher  to  the  superintendent,  and  he 
retorted,  "Begin  in  forty  places !" 

He  knew  his  business.  The  wise  teacher  begins  in 
forty  places.  And  the  wise  curator  who  sets  up  a  sim- 
ple case  labeled  ''Wings,  and  paws  and  hands,  and 
hoofs,"  in  the  same  room  that  holds  a  microscopic  dis- 
play of  the  structure  of  bone,  does  wisely;  for  he 
assumes  that  he  must  begin  in  at  least  several  places 
to  lead  his  pupils  to  enlightenment. 

One  correspondent  thus  answered  our  inquiries  as  to 
co-operation  with  the  schools :  "We  tried  for  seven  years 
to  work  with  the  schools  here,  and  never  got  one 
response.    I  wish  you  joy  of  your  attempt." 

Compare  that  with  the  account  of  like  work  in  St. 
Johnsbury.  While  the  curator  was  talking  to  an  audi- 
ence of  seemingly  indifferent  or  hostile  teachers,  as  to 
how  she  hoped  to  help  them  in  their  teaching  of  science, 
this  thought  came  to  her,  "They  are  not  against  it;  they 
are  simply  afraid  to  do  it,  with  or  without  help." 


24  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

Straightway  she  said  to  them,  "Would  you  like  me 
to  do  this  teaching  for  you?"  Her  hearers  were  trans- 
formed to  ecstacy.  "We  would !"  She  had  found  their 
teaching  point.  It  was  not  in  forty  places,  nor  yet  in 
four.  It  did  not  exist!  They  knew  neither  the  birds, 
nor  how  to  teach  them. 

Most  of  the  museums  visited,  however  eager  to  teach, 
were  confessedly  groping  for  the  place  at  which  to 
establish  their  doorways. 

Said  one  young  museum  assistant,  regarding  her 
learned  director  with  a  glance  of  affectionate  exaspera- 
tion, "He  knows  a  lot  about  cuttlefish;  but  he  knows 
no  more  of  the  needs  of  the  average  man  than  I  know 
of  the  Ba." 

Said  one  virile  director,  "My  trustees  are  constantly 
pulling  at  my  bit  to  haul  me  onto  the  tracks ;  but  I'm 
all  for  traveling  on  the  dirt  road." 

Says  Professor  Montgomery,  in  the  article  previously 
quoted,  pleading  for  the  employment  of  live  employes 
as  the  great  desideratum,  "When  this  is  done,  museums 
in  general  will  be  great  teaching  institutions,  and 
cease  to  be  cold  storage  centers." 

The  Aim  of  Museum  Teaching 

Professors  Charles  and  Frank  McMurry  put  out,  six- 
teen years  ago,  a  little  treatise  on  teaching,  called  "The 
method  of  the  Recitation,"  which,  if  one  text  were  their 
all,  might  well  be  recommended  to  museum  curators 
and  docents.  They  advised  that  the  teacher  have  an 
aim,  well  defined,  before  beginning  his  instruction. 

When  the  director  of  a  museum  shuts  the  door  upon 
the  amassed  hodge-podge  of  his  ten  or  twenty  years' 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  25 

acquisition,  and  gives  a  charming  illustrated  lecture 
to  several  hundred  people  upon  ^'Our  Neighbors,  North 
and  South,"  without  a  single  allusion  to  anything  in 
his  collection,  one  wonders  what  he  thinks  his  aim  is. 
He  directs  a  museum,  and  he  teaches;  but,  his  museum 
does  not  teach. 

When  a  curator  with  an  artistic  soul  arranges  a 
Florentine  scarf  back  of  an  Etruscan  vase  on  a  Japa- 
nese stand,  and  so  illuminates  the  group  through  a 
Tiffany  screen  as  to  produce  an  harmonious  effect,  one 
wonders  what  he  thinks  is  his  aim.  He  could  have 
blended  several  objects  at  less  cost  by  a  trip  to  Wana- 
maker's. 

When  a  charming  young  lady  gathers  about  her  knee 
in  an  art  gallery  a  group  of  young  people  full  of  senti- 
mental devotion,  and  tells  them  the  story  of  Eurydice 
and  then,  on  their  departure,  sets  down,  "Saturday 
Class  in  Appreciation,  24,"  one  longs  to  inquire  her  aim. 

The  fact  is,  all  these,  and  others,  have  an  aim,  though 
a  crude  one;  they  desire  to  attract  people  to  their 
museums,  and  they  hope  that  the  silent  influence  of  the 
museum  will  do  the  rest.  And  so  it  will,  if  it  is  a 
Teaching  Museum. 

In  order  to  achieve  the  teacher's  aim  it  is  often  best 
to  give  the  pupil  an  aim  of  his  own.  The  child  makes 
a  mat  for  mother  at  his  teacher's  suggestion.  His  aim 
is  to  please  mother.  His  teacher's  aim  is  to  develop 
him.  Presumably  the  president  of  a  college  is  more 
interested  in  the  discipline  endured  than  in  the  cup  won 
by  his  victorious  team. 

There  is  nothing  in  modern  educational  method 
more    resented    by    those    who    suffered,    as    pupils. 


26  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

under  the  ancient  method,  than  the  habit  of  giving  the 
pupil  an  agreeable  aim.  The  aim  in  the  old  days  was 
always  to  escape  a  whipping.  The  elders  still  approve 
it  as  a  proper  aim.  And  so,  when  a  teacher  of  to-day 
announces  to  her  class  in  reading,  "We  will  now  see 
what  further  happened  to  Ulysses,"  their  feelings  are 
outraged.  That  teacher  knows  well  enough,  the  old 
folks  say,  that  the  fate  of  Ulysses  is  not  her  aim.  What 
she  is  after  is  to  train  the  young  to  be  intelligent  read- 
ers, and  she  should  frankly  say,  "Now  read  with  expres- 
sion or  be  punished." 

One  museum  visited,  in  its  suggestion  of  an  aim  to 
the  youth  whom  it  wishes  to  instruct,  shows  a  canny 
knowledge  of  juvenile  traits.  It  places  on  the  front 
door  a  sign  forbidding  children  to  come  unattended, 
and  then  receives  them  with  open  arms.  The  curator 
declares  that  the  decoy  works  well.  And  one  of  our 
most  famous  museums  in  a  great  metropolis  gives, 
during  the  summer  months,  free  transportation,  a 
colored  postal  card  reproducing  some  feature  of  the 
collections,  and  an  ice  cream  cone  to  each  guest  sent 
from  certain  settlement  centers  I 

Learning  by  Doing 

The  best  teaching  is  that  which  causes  the  pupils  to 
apply  promptly  the  knowledge  that  they  gain.  There 
is  a  great  deal  of  this  done  among  American  museums. 

In  Cincinnati  a  group  of  those  who  have  themselves 
received  instruction,  act  as  volunteer  unpaid  docents. 
In  the  Children's  Museum  of  Brooklyn  a  boy  group  of 
practical  enthusiasts  practice  wireless  telegraphy,  con- 
struct industrial   models,  make  summer  trips   afield. 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  27 

and  form  a  juvenile  tree  commission  for  their  home 
streets.  On  the  wild-flower  table  of  the  Boston  Chil- 
dren's Museum  each  flower  or  sprig  is  marked  by  its 
name^  the  date  when  found,  and  the  name  of  the  first 
finder.  The  Chicago  museums  were  found  to  be  alive 
with  the  activities  of  their  patrons. 

The  Doctrine  of  Interest 

Crudely  stated,  the  doctrine  of  interest  teaches  that 
we  learn  best  that  which  interests  us  most.  Studies 
are  made  of  children's  interests  and  the  curriculum  is 
altered  to  suit  them.  The  recent  exchange  of  modern 
for  ancient  languages  in  high  schools  and  colleges,  the 
substitution  of  composition  writing  for  technical  gram 
mar,  and  the  current  enthusiasm  for  vocational  educa- 
tion are  based  largely  on  this  doctrine. 

So  the  coming  museum  is  to  minister  to  the  living 
needs  of  the  people.  J.  S.  Lopez,  in  Harper's  Weekly, 
February  24,  1912,  gives  a  lively  account  of  the  activi- 
ties of  the  Commercial  Museum  of  Philadelphia.  He 
tells  us  that  the  object  of  its  educational  work  is  *'the 
preparation  of  boys  and  girls  to  play  an  intelligent  part 
in  the  new  era  of  foreign  competition  upon  which 
America  is  entering."  He  claims  that  "To-day  there  is, 
in  Pennsylvania,  no  mountain  school  house,  miles  from 
a  railroad,  but  may  have,  from  this  museum,  its  own 
illustrated  lectures  and  its  own  scientific  collection  of 
objects  that  enter  into  the  world's  commerce." 

And  the  public  schools,  so  constantly  complained  of 
by  museum  directors  as  dead  to  art  and  science,  show, 
in  Philadelphia,  the  effect  of  the  appeal  to  what  they 
feel  to  be  their  lively  concern,  since,  in  groups  of  100, 


28  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

the  children  are  brought  to  the  museum  during  school 
hours  in  such  numbers  that  all  the  hours  of  every  school 
day  are  generally  engaged  three  months  ahead.  And 
this,  although  the  School  Board  makes  it  not  obliga- 
tory, but  merely  gives  permission  for  the  visits. 

The  Method  of  Presentation 

Given,  in  the  museum,  a  knowledge  of  (1)  what  the 
public  knows,  (2)  what  it  really  needs,  (3)  what  it 
thinks  it  needs,  (4)  what  interests  it — what  then? 

Then,  a  wise  method  of  presentation. 

The  Curator 

Museum  literature,  written  mostly  by  directors, 
curators,  or  docents,  though  sometimes  also  by  museum 
trustees,  apotheosizes  the  curator.  If  he  be  a  live  man, 
all  will  be  well;  if  not,  all  devices,  endowments,  and 
gifts  will  be  of  no  avail.  "The  crown  of  the  whole  is 
the  staff  of  curators,"  says  one;  and  again,  "The 
strength  of  an  institution  lies  wholly  in  its  men."  "Give 
us  docents  enough  and  the  torches  fired  at  their  steady 
flame  will  soon  make  an  end  of  the  twilight  of  Ameri- 
can aesthetic  life,"  says  another.  And  Dr.  Bather 
declares,  "It  is  astonishing  what  can  be  done  with  the 
slenderest  means  if  only  the  curators  have  energy,  and, 
what  is  more  important,  brains,  and,  what  is  most 
important,  taste."    He  is  speaking  of  art  museums. 

These  statements  are  relatively  true.  There  are 
many  museums  which  are  full  of  objects  and  yet  fail 
to  function ;  while  other  museums,  spending  nearly 
ninety  per  cent  of  their  incomes  on  curators,  are  func- 
tioning freely  and  profitably. 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  29 

If,  however,  the  Sistine  Madonna  were  given  to  a 
museum,  no  amount  of  languor,  stupidity,  or  even  lack 
of  taste  in  the  curator  would  prevent  us  from  visiting 
that  museum.  And  the  cleverest  and  most  tasteful 
corps  of  curators  can  blunder  wofully  in  their  attempts 
to  teach,  when  they  do  not  so  much  as  know  that  there 
may  be  a  teaching  method. 

Teaching  Through  the  Ear:    The  Docent 

One  critic  prefers  the  term  "docentry"  to  "educa- 
tional" because  the  latter  is  so  "dull"  and  the  former 
so  "alive."  The  fact  is  that,  while  docentry,  under 
present  conditions,  is  a  valuable  improvement  on  old, 
repellent  or  laissez  faire  methods,  it  is  really  in  a  way 
an  acknowledgment  of  short-comings  in  museum  admin- 
istration. A  museum  dedicated  to  the  education  of  the 
people  should  be  a  series  of  collections,  so  selected,  so 
grouped,  so  displayed  and  so  labeled  that  people  are 
allured  and  held  to  the  effort  of  continuous  observation 
by  the  interest  they  excite,  and,  thus  held,  see  facts  in 
relation  and  are  thus  caused  to  think  rightly  or  to  feel 
nobly.  When  a  docent  tells  you  what  you  see,  you  do 
not  wholly  see ;  you  partly  hear. 

Teaching  Through  the  Eye:    The  Arrangement 

It  was  my  good  fortune,  on  my  travels,  to  meet  many 
directors,  curators,  and  docents.  They  were  all  earnest 
workers,  interested  and  intelligent,  and  some  of  them 
had  excellent  taste,  and  they  all  obligingly  enlightened 
me  as  to  their  aims  and  methods.  Some  of  them  were 
born  with  the  teaching  faculty.  And  there  were  few 
from  whom  I  failed  to  learn  something  likely  to  profit 


30  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

us  in  Newark.  Yet  at  the  museum  Avherein  I  learned, 
perhaps,  most  of  how  the  people  may  be  taught,  I  had, 
as  it  happened,  no  guide  but  a  recently  appointed  jani- 
tor. Here  one  wished  to  stay  and  study,  for  here  were 
many  ideals,  as  to  museum  instruction  methods,  made 
visible.  Beyond  certain  clever  devices  there  was  not 
much  that  was  new;  but  what  had  been,  in  other 
museums,  done  now  and  then  and  almost  by  chance 
was  here  a  matter  of  determined  policy. 

In  one  museum  the  gentleman  in  charge  of  instruc- 
tion said  that  he  could  never  get  the  curators  to  leave 
objects  grouped  in  cases  where  he  wanted  them  for 
his  teaching  purposes;  they  would  insist  on  rearrang- 
ing them  according  to  some  principle  included  in  the 
history  or  the  philosophy  of  art.  Hence  his  printed 
outlines  were  constantly  made  useless. 

In  another  museum  the  principle  of  grouping  is, 
for  legal  reasons  largely,  to  put  into  one  room  what 
one  man  gave.  This  makes  of  the  museum  an  adver- 
tising agency  for  a  departed  Croesus. 

A  docent  wanted  to  connect  design  in  fabrics  with 
school  handiwork.  "It  is  beneath  our  dignity  to  admit 
amateur  work  to  our  galleries,"  said  the  curator. 

Without  sympathetic  understanding  of  the  impor- 
tance of  this  work,  directors  and  trustees  are  apt  to 
think  the  necessary  sequences  of  objects  illogical,  and 
the  best  instructional  devices  trivial.  ''What  is  this 
Eighteenth  Century  vase  doing  next  a  Trenton  bowl  ?" 
asks  the  director.  "I  was  illustrating  glazes,"  says  the 
curator.  "You  are  mixing  periods,"  retorts  the  direc- 
tor. The  most  unhappy  museum  officials  in  the  country 
are  those  who  hear  the  call  to  teach,  but  lack  the  skill 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  31 

to  make  it  audible  to  their  superiors  in  office.  NVhen 
the  deafness  is  among  the  subordinates,  there  is  always 
a  possible  remedy. 

Devices  in  Museum  Teaching 

Classification  of  Devices 

Devices  are  direct  or  contributory;  they  either 
instruct,  or  attract. 

A  series  of  nests,  burrows,  hives,  etc.,  labeled  '^Horaes 
of  Animals"  is  a  direct  teaching  device.  A  weekly  lec- 
ture upon  "The  Art  of  the  Nations,"  calculated  to  lead 
people  to  go  from  the  lecture  hall  to  the  museum  to 
look  at  pictures  from  Holland,  Italy  or  France,  is  a 
contributory  device. 

A  docent  who  takes  parties  about  the  museum,  is  a 
device  meant  to  instruct,  while  an  organ  recital  within 
the  museum  precincts,  is  meant  to  attract  visitors. 

List  of  Devices 

Here  is  a  list  of  some  of  the  devices  seen  in  museums 
visited : 

1.  Live  creatures,  such  as  fish,  birds,  monkej^s,  bees, 
mostly  serving  to  produce  atmosphere.  A  boy  who, 
wandering  through  the  formal  aisles  of  a  museum, 
meets  a  companionable  monkey,  thaws  at  once. 

2.  Processes  demonstrated,  as  when  the  curator 
uses  the  potter's  wheel.   , 

3.  Things  that  work,  a  blast  furnace  that  lights  up 
if  one  presses  a  button,  or  a  working  model  of  a  canal. 

4.  Lectures  in  lecture  halls  attached  to  the  museum. 
This  is  very  common.     The  lectures  may  be  given  to 


32  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

clubs,  to  miscellaneous  audiences,  to  classes.  They 
may  be  free,  for  pay,  during  school  hours,  on  holidays, 
to  delegates  from  classes,  to  the  workers  in  a  factory. 
And  they  may  be  illustrated  with  objects,  with  slides, 
or  with  moving  pictures.  At  one  museum  lectures  on 
art  are  given  periodically  in  Italian.  At  Boston,  lec- 
tures on  Japan  are  given  by  Japanese  in  costume.  In 
Brooklyn  a  lecturer  gave  the  same  lecture  eleven  times 
in  one  day. 

These  lectures  may  be  given  by  the  staff  members  or 
by  outsiders.  The  lecturer  may  be  paid  or  a  volunteer. 
A  curator  says  "We  don't  pay,  but  I  always,  in  writing 
thanks,  enclose  a  crisp  five  dollar  bill  for  expenses." 
Some  lecturers  are  engaged  regularly,  and  paid  well. 

5.  Docentry.  This  may  be  a  kind  of  sublimated 
guide  service,  the  hackneyed  memoriter  story  of  the 
old-fashioned  guide  being  replaced  by  an  informal  talk, 
adjusted  to  the  intelligence  of  the  hearers;  or  it  may 
be  a  real  lesson,  given  to  a  group  seated  about  a  case 
prepared  for  the  purpose. 

iM.  Lectures  by  the  staff  in  schools,  homes,  clubs,  etc. 
One  curator  announces  that  he  will  lecture  to  any 
organization  about  anything,  so  long  as  they  realize 
where  he  is  from  and  what  he  represents. 
M*r  Real  classes.  There  are  all  grades  and  styles  of 
this  work.  In  one  place  teachers  come  for  work  which 
counts  towards  promotion  credits  and  universitj^ 
degrees.  In  Buffalo,  all  the  science  work  in  the  city 
schools  is  done  by  the  museum  force,  the  pupils  coming 
by  direction  during  school  hours. 

8.  Story  telling.  This  varies  with  the  personality 
of  the  teller. 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  33 

^^.  Excursion  leading.  The  excursion  may  be  a  bird 
walk,  a  trip  of  historic  interest,  a  tree-study  trip,  or 
a  star-gazing  jaunt.  It  may  be  led  by  one  of  the  staff 
or  by  an  outsider.  Its  connection  with  the  museum  is 
often  loose. 

10.  Entertainments.  These  vary  from  society  func- 
tions to  visits  from  settlements,  transportation  of  visi- 
tors sometimes  being  paid  in  the  latter  case. 

11.  Employment  of  the  laity.  A  curator  in  Bos- 
ton asked  a  group  of  children  for  advice  in  choosing 
the  prints  for  a  children's  exhibit.  In  another  museum, 
volunteer  "Museum  Guards"  keep  discipline  on  Sun- 
days. In  another,  "Museum  Aids" — lay  women  who 
volunteer,  and  receive  instruction — act  as  guides,  and 
help  in  labeling.  Another  museum  exchanges  service 
with  the  local  boy  scouts. 

€Jr2.  Open  laboratories.  In  one  museum,  a  constant 
watch  is  kept  for  people,  especially  young  people,  who 
show  unusual  interest.  To  such  an  one  access  to  cases, 
a  stool  at  a  table  where  he  may  work,  laboratory  facili- 
ties, and  other  liberties  are  gradually  accorded. 

^40;  Lending  objects  to  go  out  of  the  museum.  Pic- 
tures, slides,  stereographs,  lanterns,  type-written  lec- 
tures, framed  pictures,  cases  of  specimens,  oil  paintings, 
pianola  records,  materials  for  experiments,  all  are  sent 
to  schools,  clubs,  churches  and  homes. 

14.  Flower  tables.    These  have  been  described. 

15.  Telescopes,  planetariums,  celestial  spheres  and 
domes.  The  return  to  a  general  interest  in  astronomy 
through  the  agency  of  the  museum  is  noteworthy. 

16.  Activities,  related  to  the  museum  collections,  for 
children  to  engage  in.    The  Worcester  Art  Museum  has 


34  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

strong  work  of  this  sort.  Among  these  are  transparent 
slates  on  which  to  draw  the  main  lines  of  simple  pic- 
tures, prints  to  color,  picture  puzzles,  individual  writ- 
ten catalogs  of  pictures  studied,  a  game  like  Authors, 
composition  contests  for  prizes,  clubs  for  neighborhood 
improvement,  or  for  science  or  art  study,  exhibits  of 
collections  by  pupils. 

^7.     Labels.    In  cases  in  a  certain  museum  is  a  series 
of  labels  like  the  following : 

Shell  Gorget  Representing  Human  Face  with  Burial  No.  205 
Rose  Mound,  Cross  Co.  Arkansas 

TerraCotta  Statuettes  of  Chalcluhuitlicce 
"Emerald  Skirted"  Goddess  of  the  Flowing  Water— Mexico 

If  those  are  labels  illuminating  to  the  specialist  and 
specialists  visit  the  museum,  then  they  are  the  labels 
to  use.  But  it  would  seem  that  either  other  and  simpler 
labels  should  enlighten  the  layman,  or  that  laymen 
should  not  be  invited  into  the  alcove  containing  this 
exhibit. 

In  the  same  museum  is  found  this  intelligible  label : 

Dog  Sled— Greenland 
Peary  Relief  Expedition 

Museum  literature  contains  many  admissions  by 
museum  authorities  that  the  label  problem  is  a  grave 
one.  Some  museum  experts  have  solved  it  wonderfully 
well. 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  35 


Here  is  a  label  that  teaches 


Sponges 

Sponges  are  a  low  sort  of  animal  life, 
mostly  marine 

Made  of  soft  tissue  and  a  tough  horny 
skeleton — Bath  Sponge 
or  siliceous  material  like  glass 
or  carbonate  of  lime 

Found  in 

warm  shallow  water — Commercial 
deep  water — Glassy 
fresh  water — One  family  of  glassy 
cosmopolitan — Limey     and    glassy 

Used  for  bath  purposes — Horny  sponges 

Caught  by  diving,  dredging  or  using  long- 
handled  forks  from  boats 

Artificially  propagated  by  cuttings  which 
mature  in  from  one  to  three  years 

Skeletons  only  are  exhibited;  soft  slimy 
tissue  is  removed 

Ask  for  Museum  Bulletin,  vol.  Ill,  No.  5 

See  reference  book  list  posted   on  stair 
landing. 


No  specialist  needs  such  a  label.  But  this  case  is 
gazed  at  each  Sunday  by  hundreds  of  people,  from  the 
Italian  laborer's  family  to  the  mayor's  wife,  not  one  in 
a  hundred  of  whom  ever  heard  of  a  sponge  outside  of 
a  bathtub.  If  the  readers  of  that  label  look  knowingly 
at  the  sponge  when  next  they  use  it,  printer's  ink  has 
not  been  wasted. 


36  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

Nearby  stands  a  big  bear  in  a  case.  The  label  reads : 
"Observe — "  and  then  follows  a  list  of  salient  features, 
which  would  not  have  been  observed  without  the  stim- 
ulus of  the  suggestions. 

Here  is  a  good  label  placed  under  a  strange,  weapon- 
like article  in  a  glass  case  devoted  to  Alaska : 


Scratcher  for  Decoying  Seal 

Seals    are   curious   and   are 

easily   at- 

tracted    by    unusual    sounds. 

With    a 

scratcher   like  this   the  hunter 

makes   a 

sound  near  a  blow-hole  in  the  ice 

,  and  thus 

entices  the  seal  into  a  net. 

Any  layman  can  understand  that;  no  one,  however 
erudite,  could  know  the  facts  without  such  instruction 
as  this.  And  there  would  be  little  value  in  showing  the 
scratcher  were  not  the  label  thus  explicit. 

18.     Catalogs.    They  are  as  vexing  as  labels. 

Suppose  a  poor  man  takes  his  children  to  a  museum 
of  art.    He  buys  a  fine-looking  catalog  at  the  door. 

"This,"  says  the  father,  "will  tell  us  about  the  things, 
and  we  can  take  it  home  and  refresh  our  memories  with 
it."  Then  he  opens  it  and  reads,  "No.  259a,  a  wooden 
statue  of  Jerapopacockle.  32  inches  high,  and  19 
inches  wide  at  the  shoulders.  The  god" — oh,  it's  a 
god — "wears  a  tall  head  dress.  He  stands  on  a  low 
pedestal,  resting  his  weight  on  both  feet.  In  his  right 
hand  he  holds  a  spear,  and  on  his  arm  is  fastened  a 
round  shield.    His  expression  is  severe.    The  end  of  the 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  37 

nose  is  slightly  defaced.     Supposed  to  belong  to  the 
ninety-fifth  dynasty !" 

Then  he  looks  around  at  his  astonished  offspring,  and 
the  most  hopeful  cries,  "Why  there's  only  one  thing 
told  there  that  I  couldn't  see  for  myself,  and  that  one 
I  couldn't  understand.  What's  the  ninety-fifth  dyn- 
asty?" Then  the  father  blushingly  replies,  "I  think 
it's  the  reign  of  some  family  somewhere,"  and  shuts  the 
book,  inwardly  calculating  that  it  will  take  fifteen 
walks  homeward  at  night  to  make  good  the  seventy-five 
cents. 

Catalogs  are  here  included  because  they  can  be  used 
to  instruct  and  sometimes  are  thus  used. 
L^A^.  Things  grouped  about  a  thought,  or  central  and 
understandable  idea.  Many  museums  have  such  groups. 
Some  museums  have  many  of  them.  Among  these  ideas 
are :  "Homes  of  Animals,"  "Protective  coloring  of  ani- 
mals," "Keversions,"  "Tree  diseases,"  "Structural 
plans,"  "The  early  steps  in  weaving,"  "Bird  calendars," 
"The  evolution  of  transportation  methods,"  "Albinos," 
"How  coal  is  formed,"  "The  evolution  of  the  landscape," 
"Some  ways  of  portraying  the  wind." 

This  list  of  devices  for  museum  teaching  might  be 
more  minute.  It  covers,  however,  in  these  twenty 
classes,  most  of  those  seen. 

What  cannot  be  thus  enumerated  is  the  wide  range  of 
the  appeal  which  museums  are  making  on  the  adver- 
tising side.  Every  type  of  human  being  is  included  in 
the  special  appeal  of  some  American  museum.  The 
National  Museum  at  Washington  gives  instruction  in 
what  to  collect  and  how  to  ship  it,  to  the  outgoing  con- 
sul; another    museum  is  the    rendezvous  of    Society; 


38  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

a  third  makes  an  effort  to  attract  motormen,  and  the 
"Truck  Drivers'  Convivial  Club"  is  invited  to  its  shows. 

Co-operations  of  Educational  Agencies 

With  the  growth  in  the  community  of  the  community 
spirit,  and  of  the  tendency  to  see  society  as  a  whole 
and  social  forces  in  their  mutual  relations,  there  has 
arisen  a  movement  so  to  unify  the  education  of  the 
child,  and  so  to  integrate  the  services  of  church,  family, 
school  and  social  life,  as  to  make  character  growth 
symmetrical. 

It  was  natural,  then,  in  this  inquiry,  to  look  not  only 
for  the  educational  work  of  the  Museum  itself,  but  also 
for  its  co-operation  with  other  educational  agencies. 
It  must  be  confessed  that  little  of  such  work  was  found. 

The  Agencies  Involved 

Some  science  museums  have  subsidiary  gardens  for 
experiments.  Some  museums  are  in  parks  and  closely 
affiliated  with  park  officials,  financially,  or  sentimen- 
tally. Some  art  museums  have  art  schools  as  appen- 
dages, or  are  themselves  appendages  of  such  schools. 

An  inherent  antipathy  seems  to  exist  between 
museums  and  libraries,  one  which  even  the  most  book- 
ish director  and  the  most  practical  librarian,  united  in 
personal  good  fellowship,  cannot  wholly  overcome. 
Many  museums  have  libraries,  some  merely  for  staff 
use,  and  some  advertised  as  for  the  use  of  patrons.  Not 
a  few  museums  are  housed  in  library  buildings. 

President  Ward,  of  the  Public  Museum  of  Milwaukee, 
addressing  the  Museum  Association  in  1913,  adjured 
his  confreres  to  avoid  the  librarv  as  a  foster  mother. 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  39 

•'We  have  in  Wisconsin,"  he  said,  "quite  a  number  of 
museums  run  under  the  auspices  of  libraries,  and  every 
one  of  them  is  dead."  The  museums  of  Pittsburgh  seem 
not  to  be  injured  by  their  library  contacts.  And  the 
Newark  venture,  though  still  an  infant,  shows  vitality 
at  least  in  growing. 

Co-operation  with  schools  is  clearly  a  most  natural 
form  of  work  for  any  museum.  But  a  certain  court  of 
law  refused  to  admit  that  the  museum  is  an  educational 
institution,  and  the  Carnegie  Foundation  does  not 
admit  museum  curators  to  its  professorial  pension 
privileges.  At  the  first  meeting  of  the  Museum  Asso- 
ciation it  was  moved  that  the  organization  become 
allied  with  the  National  Educational  Association;  the 
committee  appointed  to  effect  the  coalition  died  of 
atrophy  during  the  next  two  years. 

Evidently,  then,  museums  have  co-operated  little,  in 
the  past,  with  other  organizations,  and  especially  with 
schools.  The  general  practice  is  to  educate  the  child 
in  schools  by  means  of  words,  and  the  adult  in  museums 
by  means  of  things — a  reversal  of  what  would  seem  to 
be  the  natural  order,  "The  thing  before  the  name." 

Extent  of  Co-operative  Work 

What  is  the  extent  and  what  the  profit  of  co-opera- 
tions among  these  institutions  of  culture? 

This  is  part  of  another  question :  Wliat  work  is  done 
by  the  schools  outside  the  school-room  walls? 

In  all  progressive  cities  something  is  done  besides  the 
traditional  class-room  work.  This  is  in  response  to  the 
movement  against  the  depressing  effect  of  formalism, 
and  of  placing  chief  reliance  on  the  text-book. 


40  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

In  this  work  outside  the  school-room  four  institu- 
tions are  concerned :  Schools,  Libraries,  Museums,  and 
certain  volunteer  agencies  peculiar  to  each  city,  such  as 
parent-teachers'  associations,  lyceums,  institutes  of 
science,  history,  art,  or  music,  women's  clubs,  men's 
organizations,  etc.  In  every  city  the  situation  has  its 
own  special  features. 

From  one  place,  as  already  stated,  our  letter  of 
inquiry  brought  this  from  the  curator:  "We  tried  for 
seven  years  to  work  with  the  schools  here,  and  never 
got  one  response."  In  another  city  the  librarian  said, 
"We  keep  as  far  away  from  the  schools  as  we  can."  In 
another  city  the  curator  of  one  museum  declared  that 
the  public  school  officials  were  the  only  dead  educators 
in  the  place;  and  the  curator  of  another  museum  said 
that  the  school  officials  were  his  best  supporters. 

So  varied  and  contradictory  were  the  replies  received 
to  inquiries  about  the  relation  between  museums  and 
the  other  institutions  that  this  program  of  inquiry  was 
adopted  in  each  city: 

(1)  Visit  the  museums,  (2)  Visit  the  libraries,  (3) 
Visit  the  superintendent  of  schools. 

At  museums  and  libraries  the  inquiries  were :  What 
are  you  doing  for  the  schools?  For  the  women's  clubs? 
For  settlements?  For  factories,  shops  and  stores?  For 
churches,  and  men's  organizations?  For  anybody  else 
by  way  of  direct  education?  What  lectures  do  you 
give?  What  do  you  publish?  What,  besides  books, 
do  you  circulate?  How  do  you  advertise?  How  do 
you  label  your  wares?  What  classes  visit  you?  Whom 
do  you  visit?    What  do  you  do  for  each  other? 

The   school    superintendents    and    supervisors    were 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  41 

asked:  What  use  do  you  make  of  the  library,  the 
museum,  the  zoo,  the  parks?  Of  factories  and  city 
departments?  Of  collections,  stereoscopes,  stereo- 
graphs, stereopticons,  charts  and  pictures?  What  do 
you  get  into  your  classes  from  outside  and  what  out- 
side of  your  classes  do  you  see?  ; 

These  inquiries  were  pursued  with  more  or  less  thor- 
oughness in  nearly  every  place  visited. 

The  Attitude  of  Libraries 

All  libraries  know  that  they  have  a  duty  beyond  that 
of  supplying  books  to  citizens  who  ask  for  them.  The 
modern  library  contains  the  book  militant. 

It  is  an  important  article  in  the  librarian's  creed  that 
he  should  so  emphasize  his  mission  that  a  large  percent- 
age of  the  adults  and  all  the  children  in  the  community 
shall  be  aware  that  he  has  something  to  offer  them. 
What  the  percentage  of  adults  should  be  is  a  question 
to  be  settled  by  each  librarian  according  to  his  condi- 
tions, but  all  progressive  librarians  agree  that  100% 
of  the  children  should  be  the  goal.  In  all  the  cities 
where  the  question  was  asked  classes  from  the  schools 
go  freely  to  the  library  for  lessons  in  its  use. 

In  Providence  every  child  who  reaches  the  sixth  grade 
has  had  two  lessons  at  the  library  during  school  hours, 
and  in  Toledo  the  present  Superintendent  of  Schools, 
on  taking  office,  sent  every  public  school  pupil  in  the 
city  above  the  second  grade  to  the  library  for  a  lesson, 
and  thereafter  has  caused  every  third  grade  class  to  go 
as  soon  after  promotion  as  possible,  lest  some  over-age 
pupil  be  withdrawn  and  miss  the  initiation. 

In  Pittsburgh,  not  content  with  its  work  in  schools, 


42  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

factories,  settlements,  and  stores,  the  library  has  some 
seventy-five  assistants  Avho  discover  groups  of  children 
debarred  by  the  isolating  topography  of  the  city  from 
frequent  visits  even  to  the  numerous  branch  libraries, 
and  who  visit  these  groups  regularly  ^t  the  home  of 
some  one  child,  reading,  telling  stories,  and  circulating 
books. 

The  Attitude  of  Museums 

The  museums  have  no  such  universal  understanding 
of  their  duty.  Perhaps  their  duty  is  not  as  yet  so 
comprehensive.  Every  sane  adult  who  can  read  must 
need,  at  some  time,  to  read  with  some  definite  purpose. 
Every  member  of  every  community  over  ten  years  of 
age  should  read  daily  for  pleasure.  And  the  public 
library  is  the  accreditefl  distributor  of  printed  matter. 

But  museums  are  fitted  for  widely  different  tastes 
and  uses,  and  their  appeal  is  to  considerably  less  than 
one  hundred  per  cent  of  the  community. 

Even  museums  of  the  first  class,  however,  do  some- 
thing for  the  people  at  large. 

When  Smithson  laid  the  foundation  of  our  national 
museum,  he  dedicated  it  thus:  "For  the  increase  and 
diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men." 

The  curators  see  to  it  that  the  exhibits  open  to  the 
general  public  contain  displays  sufficiently  spectacular 
to  awaken  pride  in  American  pilgrims  and  respect  in 
foreign  visitors.  They  identify  and  interpret  specimens 
and  answer  questions,  no  matter  whence  the  source; 
and  the  department  of  mineralogy  gives  duplicate 
specimens  to  all  w^ho  ask,  merely  stipulating  that  the 
request  be  sent  in  through  a  senator  or  representative. 
Also  this  department  gives  a  broad  interpretation  to 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  43 

the  term  "Exchange."  If  you  are  a  genuine  collector 
you  may  send  to  it  20  specimens  that  it  does  not  need 
and  get  in  return  50  specimens  that  you  do  need. 
Neither  of  the  other  departments  can,  from  the  nature 
of  the  case,  be  so  democratically  educational,  for  even 
of  Indian  arrow  heads  the  supply  is  limited,  and  a 
stuffed  gorilla  is  not  an  exchangeable  commodity. 

The  educational  motto  of  this  museum  might  be  "Fur- 
ther and  preserve  the  discoveries  of  the  few  that  they 
may  teach  the  many." 

The  Children's  room  in  the  Smithsonian  seems  lo 
have  direct  educational  relation  to  the  children  of 
Wasliington,  who  alone  can  reach  it.  It  is  attractive 
and  interesting,  and  its  secretary  says  that  he  receives 
many  letters  inquiring  about  its  methods  and  purpose. 

More  exclusively  devoted  to  the  needs  of  the  special- 
ist is  the  museum  created  by  schools,  colleges,  and 
learned  societies.  Few  of  these,  even,  are  regardless  of 
the  claims  of  the  many.  "I  would  be  glad  to  see  the 
Children's  Museum  become  well  established,"  said  the 
curator  of  Science  in  Boston  "for  it  will  relieve  us  of 
a  kind  of  duty  that  we  are  not  equipped  for,  either  in 
time  or  money.  Teachers  ask  a  good  deal,  and  when 
they  ask  we  do  not  feel  that  we  can  refuse." 

It  is  a  sign  of  health  in  the  schools  of  Boston  that 
they  so  pursue  the  specialist  for  help  in  their  work. 

Practically  every  museum  supported  by  the  public 
strives  to  do  its  duty  to  the  schools.  The  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History  has  docent  service,  and 
illustrated  lectures,  and  lends  specimens;  the  Metro- 
politan hires  instructors  and  invites  teachers  to  bring 
classes.    The  Bronx  Zoo  and  the  Aquarium  have  public 


44  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

school  classes  at  regularly  appointed  school  periods; 
the  Boston  Art  Museum  and  Children's  Museum  con- 
duct classes  and  take  materials  into  the  schools ;  there 
is  active  school  teaching  work  done  by  the  museums  of 
Worcester,  Providence,  Cincinnati,  Toledo,  Indianapo- 
lis,— in  fact  everywhere  curators  are  coming  to  recog- 
nize their  tasks  as  those  of  teachers  of  the  schools. 

At  the  Commercial  Museum  at  Philadelphia,  school 
hours  are  filled  by  school  classes  attending  illustrated 
lectures  upon  industrial  processes  and  then  visiting 
the  correlated  special  exhibits  shown  by  the  museum. 

When  the  art  museum  of  Toledo  puts  up  an  exhibit 
of  pottery,  every  grammar  grade  class  in  the  city 
devotes  an  hour  and  a  quarter  of  school  time  to  attend 
a  demonstration  at  the  museum  of  pottery  making,  and 
then  studies  the  exhibit.  The  same  thing  occurs  when 
the  subject  of  the  special  exhibit  is  stained  glass,  or 
lace,  or  pastels;  so  that  during  the  winter  each  pupil 
above  the  fourth  grade  spends  a  number  of  school  hours 
receiving  instruction  in  the  arts  at  the  museum. 

At  Indianapolis,  the  contents  of  the  Children's  Room 
are  changed  each  month  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  school 
course  in  art.  Landscapes,  designs,  figure  drawing, 
whatever  is  the  subject  accentuated  during  the  month, 
are  shown — and  the  classes  come,  using  the  materials 
provided  by  the  museum,  sketching,  taking  notes,  under 
the  instruction  of  teacher,  art  supervisor  or  museum 
instructor. 

The  Art  Museum  of  Boston  does  elaborate  work  for 
a  group  of  teachers,  and  gives  each  teacher  an  outline 
that  she  may  duplicate  the  lesson  for  her  class. 

The  docent  in  the  Art  Museum  of  Pittsburgh  gives  a 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  45 

lecture  illustrated  by  slides,  shows  the  class  what  the 
gallery  holds  of  illustrative  material,  and  sets  a  prob- 
lem for  solution  by  the  children. 

There  remains  the  museum  devoted  to  the  service  of 
the  people,  and  largely  through  the  schools, — that  type 
of  museum  which  acknowledges,  "We  have  not  suffi- 
cient money  to  buy  great  works  of  art.  Classics  and 
antiquities  are  far  beyond  our  hopes.  Besides,  every 
new  museum  aspiring  to  the  great  masters,  must  be 
worse  off  than  its  predecessors,  since  the  supply  of  old 
masters  is  necessarily  limited.  There  is,  nearby,  a 
museum  equipped  for  the  specialist.  Our  task  is  to 
make  the  soil  out  of  which  master  artists  and  special- 
ists grow." 

So  we  have  people's  museums,  museums  of  industry, 
children's  museums.  These  museums  find  out  what  the 
schools  need  or  want,  open  channels  of  communication 
with  them,  and  supply  these  needs  through  these  chan- 
nels. 

Failure  to  bring  about  such  intercourse  with  the 
schools  that  every  child  hears  the  threefold  invitation 
of  art,  science,  industry,  spells  essential  failure  for  the 
people's  museum. 

It  is  not  true  that,  though  100 7o  of  the  children  have 
heard  these  calls,  they  must  all  heed  all  or  any  of  them. 
There  are  ear-minded  children,  introspective  or  reflec- 
tive children,  imaginative  and  ratiocinative  children, 
who  are  hampered  rather  than  helped  by  enchainment 
to  material  things,  however  interesting  or  beautiful. 
These  will  pass  the  summons  by.  The  mission  of  the 
museum  is  to  sift  out  those  who  can  profit  by  syste- 
matic visual  instruction,  and  to  serve  them  intensively. 


46  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

An  earnest  effort  is  being  made  to  do  this  in  many 
places.  The  most  successful  methods  used  are,  to  recap- 
itulate : 

1.  Such  a  museum  devotes  the  greater  part  of  its 
time  and  money  to  people,  not  to  things.  It  regards 
curators  as  more  valuable  assets  than  collections.  It 
is  known  as  the  place  where  Mr.  Blank  or  Miss  Blank 
works,  not  as  the  place  where  such  and  such  things  are 
"preserved." 

2.  Its  collections  consist  of  concrete  material  cor- 
responding to  units  of  thought.  It  is  like  a  library. 
Each  department  is  a  book;  each  room  is  a  chapter; 
each  case  is  a  paragraph ;  each  shelf  is  a  sentence. 

In  the  Brooklyn  Children's  Museum  is  a  case  con- 
taining models  of  wax  and  of  the  anatomy  of  the  bee. 
They  are  so  old  that  no  one  knows  whence  they  came. 
They  were  of  little  use,  until  the  curator  set  opposite 
them  a  bee  hive  whose  occupants  fly  in  and  out  of  the 
building,  carrying  on  their  social  functions  under  the 
eyes  of  the  young  visitors.  From  that  moment  the  old 
models  gained  a  meaning  and  a  value. 

To  make  each  museum  unit  a  thought  unit  two  things 
are  necessary : 

A.  The  orthodox  method  of  filling  each  shelf  with 
many  specimens,  so  similar  that  only  experienced  eyes 
can  see  differences  between  them,  must  be  changed  by  a 
decrease  in  the  number  of  things  and  an  increase  in  the 
differences  between  the  specimens.  That  is  to  say,  a 
synopsis  only  must  be  shown  in  each  show  case. 

The  reasons  for  this  are  threefold:  First,  the  lay- 
man cannot  appreciate  minute  differences;  second, 
untrained  minds  become  confused  by  a  multitude  of 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  47 

impressions;  third,  when  everything  is  shown,  crowd- 
ing results. 

B.  The  relations  between  neighboring  articles  must 
chiefly  be,  not  those  of  similarity,  but  those  of  causa- 
tion. The  more  dynamic  an  exhibit  the  more  vigorous 
the  impression.  The  interest  shown  by  most  observers 
varies  in  a  descending  scale  according  to  whether  the 
things  shown  are: 

(1.)     Living,  as  in  a  zoo,  or  aquarium,  or  aviary. 

(2.)  In  action,  as  when  the  automatic  stereopticon 
shows  its  pictures. 

(3.)  Showing  a  dramatic  situation,  as  in  habitat 
groups. 

(4.)  Indicating  the  life  cycle  of  an  individual,  as 
from  moth  to  moth,  or  the  development  of  a  species,  as 
from  bog  to  coal,  or  the  development  from  raw  material 
to  finished  product,  as  from  the  shell  to  the  button.  The 
least  interesting  thing  is  an  unrelated  thing,  and  next 
to  that  come  two  things  related  merely  by  resemblance. 

The  Attitude  of  Schools 

As  to  the  schools,  they  have  their  problems  also  in 
the  matter  of  co-operation.  The  traditional  way  to  test 
school  results  is  by  books  learned,  examples  "done," 
compositions  written,  and  technical  excellence  acquired. 
To  interfere  with  routine  by  insisting  that  it  is  also 
worth  while  to  see  beauty,  to  love  nature,  or  to  feel 
with  the  inventor  his  thrill,  is  to  arouse  opposition  in 
the  mechanical-minded. 

Where  the  course  of  study  makes  no  provision  for 
the  use  of  any  knowledge  or  power  gained  outside  of 
text  books,  or  where  such  provision  is  a  dead  letter. 


48  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

the  teacher  who  objects  to  a  meaningless  junket  is 
right. 

Also,  where  ancient  customs  prevail,  there  is  always 
danger  that  conservative  parents  or  citizens  will  criti- 
cise. 

But,  so  far  as  my  visits  went,  this  discussion  is  aca- 
demic. I  found  only  one  place  where  the  schools  do  not 
quite  freely  use  the  museum  so  far  as  it  is  equipped 
\sdth  materials  and  assistants  adapted  to  their  needs. 
They  do  this  better  than  they  use  the  libraries. 

In  one  city  the  museum  director  reports  that  the 
Board  of  Education  pays  transportation,  when  the 
child  cannot;  in  another,  the  Board  of  Trade  under- 
takes to  do  so.  In  Toledo,  classes  can  move  about  with 
great  freedom,  for  the  carfare  of  young  children  is  only 
one  cent.  In  Pittsburgh,  it  costs  twenty  cents  to  give  a 
child  from  a  distance  his  glimpse  of  the  beauty  on  the 
hill.  The  director  there  is  considering  the  getting  of 
subscriptions  to  overcome  this  difficulty. 

Difficulties  in  Securing  Co-operation 

x^s  is  evident,  each  library,  each  museum  and  each 
school  system  gets  its  points  of  contact  where  it  can 
and  develops  according  to  its  own  genius.  The  result 
is  that  no  two  situations  have  the  same  virtues.  But 
all  the  situations  have  the  same  vice  and  that  a  natural 
and  inevitable  one,  in  view  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
three  educational  factors  are  governed.  In  every  place 
the  weakness  consists  in  a  lack  of  correlation,  due 
mostly  to  a  lack  of  knowledge  and  of  sympathetic 
insight.  Schools  do  not  know  what  libraries  have  for 
them.    Libraries  do  not  know  what  museums  are  doing. 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  49 

Museums  do  not  know  how  schools  are  run.  None  of 
these  agencies  knows  the  public  which  it  serves. 

The  head  of  a  prominent  secondary  school  assured 
the  librarian,  "Really  there  is  no  value  in  lessons  on  the 
library  for  our  students.  What  they  need  is  just  to  be 
shown  through,  you  know,  from  garret  to  cellar,  made 
familiar  with  it,  you  know."  This  schoolman  thinks 
that  a  library  is  a  building. 

A  prominent  museum  official  vaunts  his  museum  as 
democratic.  "We  are  glad  to  have  st-hool  classes  come 
and  spend  the  day  with  us.  And  our  lunch  room  pro- 
vides a  nourishing  simple  lunch  for  twenty-five  cents!" 

The  curator  in  one  museum  thinks  that  he  is  doing  a 
"great  work"  in  the  schools  when  out  of  some  12,000 
school  children  he  gets  "over  a  hundred"  essays  on  "A 
visit  to  Our  Museum."  A  librarian  considers  her  work 
as  "a  poor  business"  when  only  half  the  teachers  bring 
their  classes.  And  a  school  principal,  who  himself  is  a 
student,  first  borrows  from  the  city  library  all  that  it 
has  on  a  subject  and  then  sends  thirty  children,  after 
school,  with  no  chaperone  and  no  knowledge  of  how 
to  use  a  reference  book,  to  "look  up"  the  same  subject 
for  a  debate.  All  these  misunderstandings  a  real  get- 
together  spirit  would  quickly  obviate. 

If  every  museum  were  to  put,  as  does  Providence,  a 
bibliography  on  the  wall  beside  its  well-labeled  cases, 
and  conveniences  for  consulting  the  books  near  the 
cases,  there  would  be  less  vacant  idling  through  the 
museums  of  the  country. 

These  observations  are  the  partial  results  of  visits  to 
other  cities.  And  they  lead  directly  to  the  following 
suggestions  as  to  the  Newark  Museums. 


50  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

Applications  to  Newark  Museums 
Their  Obvious  Advantages 

The  Newark  Museum  Association  is  to  be  congratu- 
lated on  several  counts:  Its  museums  have  not  been 
given  by  any  one  creator.  They  need  the  support  of 
all  citizens.  They  have  so  little  that,  with  a  well  defined 
purpose,  future  accretions  should  fall  easily  into  place. 
These  museums,  being  housed  under  the  same  roof  as 
the  library  and  directed  by  the  librarian,  such  an  inti- 
macy is  possible,  perhaps,  as  may  enable  Newark  to  be 
the  first  city  completely  to  interweave  the  work  of  the 
schools,  the  museums,  and  the  libraries.  With  Ex-Gov- 
ernor Murphy,  President  of  the  Essex  County  Park 
Commission,  as  president  and  sympathizing  with  and 
understanding  the  w^ork,  there  is  also  a  chance  of  giv- 
ing it  such  a  working  relation  with  the  Park  Commis- 
sion as  exists,  probably,  nowhere  except  in  Boston, 
where  the  Park  Commission  houses  and  provides 
upkeep  for  its  Children's  Museum. 

A  museum  should,  for  its  best  good,  be  poor;  but 
not  too  poor.  Receiving  so  small  a  financial  support 
from  the  city,  oui^  is  fortunate  in  having  for  its  quar- 
ters rooms  which,  though  few,  are  of  a  proper  character 
for  its  collections. 

The   Inevitable   Growth   of   Any  Museum 

No  one  starting  a  museum  need  fear  that  he  will  want 
for  things.  Whatever  be  its  scope,  things  will  flow  in. 

This,  at  least,  was  the  testimony  of  most  of  the 
museums  visited. 

"We  have  struggled  hard  to  preserve  this  museum  for 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  51 

art,"  says  one  curator,  "and  have  offended  many  would- 
be  donors  by  refusing  their  collections." 

"This  may  seem  to  you  a  scant  exhibit  of  modern  art," 
says  another,  "but  I  assure  you  that  we  can't  show  what 
we  have,  and  we  couldn't  had  we  twice  the  space." 

"The  late  curator,"  sighs  his  successor,  "was  snowed 
under  by  material  that  his  financial  resources  did  not 
enable  him  to  handle." 

"It  is  easy  for  you  to  see  what's  the  matter  here," 
says  a  trustee.  "The  director  has  permitted  us  to  be 
overwhelmed  with  truck." 

"Build  a  museum  in  the  desert,"  says  one,  "and  you 
will  shortly  find  your  collection  ahead  of  your  staff." 

Two  of  the  most  efficient  small  museums  visited,  in 
Providence  and  Brooklyn,  spend  almost  nothing  for 
their  collections,  but  rely  on  donations  and  the  speci- 
mens obtained  by  their  staff.  And  we  are  witnesses 
recently  of  the  straits  to  which  the  Metropolitan  has 
been  put  merely  to  house  what  has  been  given. 

It  is  not  suggested  that  the  Newark  director  shall 
never  buy.  But,  being  poor,  he  will  not  make  impulsive 
purchases.  Each  will  either  fill  the  gaps  in  a  plan  which 
has  been  based  upon  gifts  already  received,  or  will 
make  the  beginning  of  a  collection  based  on  an  idea 
calculated  to  attract  gifts  for  its  completion. 

No  director,  starting  a  museum  under  a  set  of  trus- 
tees who  understand  and  support  him,  need  fear  the 
final  outcome  because  the  beginnings  are  small.  A  pull- 
together  spirit  is  worth  as  much  as  a  million  dollar 
endowment — and  attracts  the  endowment. 

Evidently,  then,  the  association  has  only  to  be  harmo- 
niously aggressive,  and  its  educational  value  is  assured. 


52  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

Disadvantages  of  the   Newark  Museums 

Newark's  position  near  our  greatest  city,  often  called 
an  asset,  is  sometimes  seen  to  be  the  opposite.  To 
obtain  for  Newark  cultural  agencies,  such  as  first  class 
theatrical  performances,  grand  opera  and  museums,  is 
more  difficult  than  for  interior  cities  of  the  same  size. 
The  argument  that  those  Avho  wish  these  things  can  go 
to  New  York,  with  its  implication  that  those  who  can- 
not go  often  to  New  York  do  not  wish  cultural  oppor- 
tunities, Is  the  usual  argument  of  the  Cans  about  the 
Can'ts.  We  can  hardly  expect  our  city  to  be  entirely 
free  from  this  spirit. 

The  obverse  tendency,  to  pour  contributions  into  cof- 
fers which  are  already  full,  is  equally  common.  We  see 
it  in  huge  gifts  to  the  great  colleges  and  in  neglect  of 
home  institutions,  in  the  crowding  of  large  churches 
and  the  stream  of  donations  to  the  larger  museums. 
The  Newark  museums  will  doubtless  have  seven  lean 
years  and  then  seven  fat  years ;  it  is  a  common  exper- 
ience. 

The  conscientious  conservative  we  have  always  with 
us.  In  this  particular  instance,  the  conservatives  have 
especial  advantages  in  argument.  They  insist  that  it  be 
proved  to  them :  1.  Museums  are  good ;  2.  Newark  needs 
a  museum ;  3.  It  should  be  three  kinds  of  a  museum ;  4. 
It  is  needed  soon ;  5.  It  should  serve  as  an  educational 
agency;  6.  It  should  be  co-operative  in  method  and 
democratic  in  spirit. 

Those  who  are  conservative  because  they  cannot  see 
until  they  are  shown,  are  the  class  who  most  need 
museums. 

The  habit  of  large  giving  by  individuals  for  the  com- 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  53 

mon  weal  has  not  yet  become  fixed  among  wealthy 
Newarkers;  and  such  giving  has  been  chiefly  for  that 
type  of  charity  which  obviously  helps  its  object,  rather 
than  that  which  more  subtly  enables  him  to  help  him- 
self. The  more  difficult  practice  of  creating  so  general 
an  enthusiasm  as  shall  attract  the  mites  of  the  multi- 
tude is  also  yet  in  its  infancy  here.  But  civic  conscious- 
ness is  rapidly  growing.  Newark's  museums  bid  fair 
to  come  into  port  on  the  crest  of  a  tidal  wave  which  is 
just  now  rising. 

Although  most  of  the  individual  things  that  the 
Newark  museums  ought  to  do  are  done  somewhere 
to-day,  yet  the  entire  scheme  is  not  to  be  seen  in  full 
operation  anywhere.  The  carrying  out  of  good  plans 
will  be  slow,  for  it  will  be  impossible  to  hire  trained 
experts  to  do  what  has  not  yet  been  done.  Hence,  sus- 
taining the  promotors'  faith  and  rousing  of  enthusiasm 
in  others  will  require  both  wisdom  and  vigor. 

Each  of  these  drawbacks  has  been  suffered  by  some 
museum  visited.  They  are  written  in  archives,  whis- 
pered in  private  conferences,  and  implied  in  formal 
reports.  They  need  not  appall,  though  some  of  them 
will  undoubtedly  annoy. 

Suggestions  for  the  Newark  Museums 

General  Scope  of  These  Museums 

In  the  near  future,  the  city  government  will  perhaps 
not  provide  more  than  buildings  and  upkeep,  including 
salaries,  for  the  Newark  Museum.  Collections  must  be 
gained  through  subscriptions  and  gifts.  As  the  city 
contains  persons  of  diverse  tastes  who  are  likely  to  give 
to  institutions  if  they  have  already  a  department  cov- 


54  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

ering  the  special  interest  involved,  the  association 
should  collect,  as  soon  as  may  be,  a  nucleus  of  really 
good  things  in  all  its  three  fields,  art,  science  and  indus- 
try. History  is  omitted  because  archaeology  can  be 
included  under  ethnology,  and,  because  in  Newark  is 
the  headquarters  of  the  New  Jersey  Historical  Society, 
and  duplication  of  work  is  bad  policy. 

This  nucleus,  however  small  in  quantity,  should  be 
of  such  excellent  quality  as  may  encourage  real  con- 
noisseurs to  commit  their  treasures  to  the  museums' 
keeping.  The  next  few  years  will  be  the  heroic  age, 
the  Days  of  the  Fathers,  which  will  be  looked  back  to 
with  respect  when  the  time  of  fruition  has  come.  Com- 
pare the  humble  beginnings  of  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  with  the  opulence  of  its  three  latest  bequests. 

Since  the  citj'  government  can  not  righteously  sub- 
sidize any  enterprise  that  does  not  prove  its  value  to 
the  city,  the  association  must  immediately  prove  itself 
to  be  an  agency  both  of  cultural  and  of  economic  value. 
This  it  can  do  only  by  serving  both  adults  and  chil- 
dren, both  for  education  and  for  recreation. 

Art 

As  an  agency  of  cultural  pleasure-giving,  the  art 
department  should  be  pre-eminent. 

For  this  purpose,  not  rarity,  but  beauty  is  necessary. 
Connoisseurs  can  see  in  the  metropolis  collections  with 
which  our  collection  can  never  compete.  The  compara- 
tively uninformed  can  be  well  introduced  to  such  types 
as  will  ultimately  make  them  also  judges  and  enjoyers 
of  beauty,  through  reproductions  and  traveling  exhibits, 
if  these  are  well  displayed.    The  present  sculpture  hall 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  55 

proves  this.  There  are  many  galleries  containing  more 
valuable  collections  than  this  little  group  of  familiar 
casts;  but  no  collection  is  more  perfectly  placed  and 
grouped  to  produce  refined  aesthetic  pleasure. 

Every  effort  should  be  made  to  find  where,  in  the 
city,  art  is  studied,  and  in  connection  with  what  groups 
of  people  art  appreciation  is  likely  to  be  easily  evoked, 
and,  through  the  simple  materials  that  can  be  afforded, 
intelligent  co-operation  should  be  created  with  these 
forces  for  these  ends. 

Financially,  the  art  department  can  profit  the  city 
just  in  so  far  as  the  city's  industries  appreciate  th6^ 
economic  value  of  beauty.    A  lump  of  clay  worth  less 
than  a  penny,  may,  when  transformed  by  the  industry  / 
of  the  artisan  into  a  bowl,  be  worth  a  dollar;  when/ 
transformed  by  the  skill  of  the  artist  into  a  beautiful] 
bowl,  it  may  be  Avorth  many  thousands  of  dollars.    Thei 
like  is  true  to  some  extent  of  many  industries.     An) 
industrious  and  frugal  jeweler  can  make  a  living;  anf 
inventive  and  artistic  jeweler  can  make  a  fortune.    Thei 
difference  between  a  five  dollar  and  a  twenty  dollar  hat' 
is  much  more  in  the  style  than  in  the  material.     The 
next  generation,  taught  the  principles  of  good  taste  in 
the  schools,  will  i)rove  this  more  fully  than  do  we,  and 
as  America  comes  into  competition  with  nations  where 
the  economic  value  of  beauty  is  known,  our  raanufac^ 
turers  will  learn  it  of  necessity.     A  growth  in  thi^ 
knowledge  should  be  stimulated  by  a  personal  propa- 
ganda of  museum  support  among  the  manufacturer^ 
of  Newark. 

The  Art  Museum  of  Toledo  shows  two  rooms,  built 
within  the  Museum,  their  furniture  costing  about  the 


56  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

same,  one  beautiful,  the  other  ugly.  And  the  director 
advertises,  through  the  city  papers,  that  he  will  advise 
any  householder  how  to  get  the  most  beauty  for  his 
money  in  house  furnishing  and  decoration.  Were  the 
art  department  of  Newark's  museum  to  do  that,  and 
then  to  furnish  young  artists  with  opportunities  to 
cater  to  the  taste  thus  awakened,  Newark's  finances 
would  be  materially  improved,  both  through  the  retain- 
ing of  much  money  now  spent  elsewhere  and  by  the 
attracting  of  a  high  grade  of  purchasers  to  this  city. 

Industry 

There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  advisability  of 
making  industrial  exhibits  prominent,  for  several  rea- 
sons: 

Vocational  education  is  receiving  attention  from 
both  citizens  and  school  authorities  in  Newark.  The 
schools  have  established  a  vocational  elementary  school 
for  bo3  s,  and  the  same  is  to  be  done  for  girls.  The  East 
Side  and  the  Central  high  schools  both  emphasize  the 
educational  value  of  technical  subjects.  Newark  has 
long  had  a  technical  evening  school.  And  yet,  the  city 
does  not  pretend  to  have  solved  the  question  of  voca- 
tional guidance.  Any  help  in  affording  opportunity  for 
insight  into  the  methods  and  processes  of  the  world's 
industries  will  doubtless  be  gratefully  received  by  both 
teachers  and  parents. 

Newark  is  a  city  of  industries.  The  curators  in  Phil- 
adelphia assert  that  the  heads  of  the  developing  busi- 
nesses in  their  city  give  appreciative  co-operation  to  ail 
that  the  Commercial  Museum  undertakes.  There  can 
be   no    better    advertisement   than    such    ostentatious 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  57 

frankness  as  is  shown  by  the  free  excursions  of  inspec- 
tion offered  to  visiting  housewives  by  the  Franco-Ameri- 
can Soup  Company,  or  such  screen  pictures  of  factor- 
ies as  those  shown  on  the  Heinz  Pier  in  Atlantic  City. 
The  museum  trustees  should  bend  their  individual  ener- 
gies to  inducing  the  manufacturers  of  the  city  to  put 
loans  and  gifts  on  exhibition  in  the  museum. 

The  elementary  public  schools  emphasize  industrial 
geography,  and,  as  there  are  definite  requirements  for 
this  in  the  courses  of  study  and  definite  tests  involving 
these  topics,  the  teachers  will  doubtless  be  glad  to  take 
advantage  of  anything  calculated  to  lift  their  teach- 
ing out  of  the  dreariness  of  word-getting.  The  fact 
that  most  of  the  schools  are  attempting  to  do  this  by 
the  aid  of  stereoscopes  and  stereopticons  indicates  that 
other  means  of  visual  instruction  in  geography  will  be 
appreciated. 

The  amount  of  visual  instruction  in  the  industries 
of  the  world  now  given  in  the  schools,  and  the  amount 
of  co-operation  in  creating  an  industrial  exhibit  obtain- 
able from  Newark  industries  should  be  investigated, 
and  the  development  of  the  industrial  department  of 
the  museum  should  be  adapted  to  the  needs  and  the 
opportunities  thus  developed. 

There  is,  in  Newark,  a  course  of  study  on  Newark 
herself.  Pupils  are  expected  to  find  out  for  themselves 
certain  things  and  report  upon  some  of  the  more  obvious 
results  of  city  government.  The  pupils  of  the  GA  grade 
are  supposed  to  visit  the  library,  merely  to  gain  a  cur- 
sory impression  of  the  building,  not  to  experience  its 
use.  The  hesitation  which  they  evidently  feel  in  doing 
this  indicates  one  wav  in  which  museum  invitations  to 


58  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

children  might  help  to  bring  about  what  the  school 
officials  want.  And  some  questions  brought  to  the 
librarians  vrith  the  request  that  they  provide  a  book 
that  will  answer  them,  show  plainly  the  need  for  objec- 
tive teaching  that  will  lead  to  the  relegation  of  the  text- 
book to  its  rightful  place.  A  pupil,  for  instance,  mod- 
estly asks  for  a  book  answering  the  question,  "Are 
garbage  cans  properly  emptied  in  your  neighborhood?" 
Such  a  course  the  museum  can  materially  help  to  make 
practical. 

Science 

In  science,  the  situation  is  more  difficult.  It  is  true 
that  within  the  past  twenty  years  interest  in  nature 
study  as  a  recreation  has  increased.  It  is  also  true  that 
our  industrial  prosperity  has  been  created  largely  by 
our  scientific  discoveries  and  inventions.  Yet  nature 
study  in  many  American  schools  is  neglected  or  per- 
functory, except  in  the  rare  cases  of  a  teacher  or  prin- 
cipal enthusiastic  on  the  subject,  and  there  is  nothing 
harder  to  prove  to  many  parents  than  that  a  love  of 
nature  or  a  taste  for  natural  science  in  their  children 
can  be  turned  to  profitable  account.  Every  city  con- 
tains many  business  failures,  and  mediocre  professional 
men,  who  would  have  made  successful  farmers,  poultry- 
men,  florists,  foresters  or  chemists  had  they  been  able 
to  know  and  to  follow  their  bents. 

The  museum  should  afford  a  sympathetic  centre  for 
the  scientific  interests  of  the  community,  and  serve 
these  interests  by  the  exhibition  and  circulation  of 
specimens,  and  by  fostering  field  work,  collections  and 
laboratory  work  among  both  old  and  young.  The  Chil- 
dren's Museum  of  Brooklyn  has  sent  out  a  number  of 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  59 

expert  wireless  telegraphers,  and  counts  tree-planting 
clubs  as  indirect  results  of  its  work  with  children. 

Whatever  is  done  in  any  department  must  be  a 
growth.  For  some  years,  probably,  only  those  chiklren 
will  be  made  aware  of  what  is  offered  in  nature  study 
whose  teachers  or  parents  have  a  taste  for  the  subject. 

There  are  many  pupils  graduated  from  the  elemen- 
tary schools,  who  have  never  visited  the  library,  and 
who  cannot  find  an  article  in  an  encyclopaedia.  Much 
more  will  this  be  the  case  with  the  museum.  Few  four- 
teen-year-old children  have  ever  seen  any  statue  other 
than  those  in  our  parks  and  in  their  own  churches. 

Now,  growth  is  necessarily  slow.  The  vital  matter 
is  not  how  far  we  have  progressed,  but  are  we  progress- 
ing? 

Some  places  are  in  advance  of  us;  but  there  is  no 
evidence  that  there  is  any  American  city  where  every 
child  knows  how  to  look  for  information  in  a  book  of 
reference,  how  to  visit  the  public  librar}^,  the  museum 
and  the  public  parks  with  profit,  and  what  are  the 
chief  points  of  interest  in  his  city.  Something  of  all 
this  is  done  everywhere ;  perhaps  not  all  of  it  anywhere. 

Newark  has  made  a  good  start  in  at  least  two  of  these 
directions:  A  considerable  percentage  of  her  children 
use  the  library,  for  pleasure,  and  she  has  a  course  of 
study  upon  the  city,  fully  developed  on  paper  and  some- 
what carried  out  in  fact.  It  will  be  evident  that  to  aid 
her  in  the  other  matters  the  task  will  be,  not  to  develop 
the  museum  arbitrarily  along  prearranged  lines,  but  to 
allow  latitude,  so  that  it  may  grow  to  meet,  as  well  as 
to  create,  demand. 

In.  earlier  pages,  the  work  of  the  docent  may  seem 


60  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

to  have  been  belittled.  The  museum  of  the  future  will 
develop  the  docent's  work  to  a  degree  thus  far  unima- 
gined.  Some  of  the  work  now  done  by  the  docent  will 
be  rendered  unnecessary  by  better  methods  of  display 
and  of  labeling,  but  many  new  values  will  be  found  in  it. 

For  example,  many  children  have  never  seen  a  statue 
of  the  nude.  Some  of  these  children,  carefully  drilled 
for  twelve  or  fourteen  years  out  of  innocence  into  mod- 
esty, or,  alas !  into  vulgarity,  when  they  enter  the  little 
Newark  sculpture  hall  have  a  shock  which  is  often  pain- 
ful, and  generally  forbids  the  natural  enjoyment  of  the 
beauty  they  find  there.  Newcomers,  therefore,  are  held 
in  a  group  outside  the  door  and  given  a  few  minutes' 
preparation.  They  are  told  of  the  relation  of  dress  to 
climate  and  custom ;  the  variations  of  costume  for  sea 
bathing  and  athletics,  are  cited;  the  beauty  of  the 
human  form  is  mentioned,  and  the  studies  made  of  it  by 
those  who  wish  to  follow  such  trades  as  that  of  cos- 
tume designing.  They  are  asked  to  note  the  wooden- 
ness  of  the  Assyrian  figures,  the  conventionality  of  the 
Egyptian,  and  the  beauty  of  the  Greek.  They  are  pre- 
pared for  the  whiteness  of  the  casts  by  being  told  of  the 
difference  between  an  original  and  a  reproduction. 

The  children,  thus  prepared,  feel  less  embarrassment 
over  the  exhibit. 

Quite  as  definite  a  preparation  is  needed  that  the 
mineral  collection  may  be  seen  by  children  to  any  profit. 
Lessons  for  adults  will,  of  course,  be  developed  in  other 
ways.  We  hope  to  get  enlightenment  and  assistance 
from  the  New  York  Museum  instructors,  although  our 
problem,  which  is  how  to  get  the  most  nourishment  out 
of  a  little  display,  is  very  different  from  theirs. 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  61 

specific  Suggestions  for  These  Museums 

The  specific  measures  and  sequences  by  which  these 
general  suggestions  may  be  achieved  afford  a  consider- 
able latitude  of  judgment.  The  following  is  but  one  of 
many  possible  plans. 

Children's  Room  "<« 

Put  about  a  thousand  dollars  into  a  small  Children's 
Room.  Have  there  startling,  wonderful,  unusual  and 
beautiful  things,  such  as  albinos,  peacocks,  sponge  cor- 
als, a  split  nautilus  shell,  aquaria  fed  by  fountains,  an 
aviary,  and  a  bee  hive.  Select  and  arrange  chiefly  to 
attract  admiration  and  astonishment.  This  would  be 
the  striking  feature  of  the  years'  work.  Complete  it 
promptly,  and  advertise  it  extensively. 

Habitat  Group 

Spend  about  five  hundred  dollars  in  the  preparation 
of  a  habitat  group  of  New  Jersey  birds  likely  soon  to 
disappear.  Have  the  habitat  cunningly  arranged  to 
melt  from  reproduced  plant  and  flower,  as  marsh  mal- 
low and  grass,  into  a  painted  background,  as  in  the  hab- 
itat groups  at  the  Museum  of  Natural  History.  Put 
this  group  in  the  hall  of  the  first  floor. 

The  aim  in  preparing  this  group  is  two-fold :  to  adver- 
tise the  museum,  and  to  inspire  interest  in  preserving 
the  memory  of  the  life  forms  now  passing  from  the 
neighborhood  of  Newark.  This  group  would,  perhaps, 
suggest  to  people  the  giving  of  money  for  the  prepara- 
tion of  other  similar  groups. 

These  two  things  would  constitute  a  spectacular  dis- 
play, which  would  engage  the  interest  of  the  city  and 


62  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

cause  citizens  generally,  and  subscribers  in  particular, 
to  realize  that  the  museum  is  alive. 

Educational  Work 

Meanwhile,  bend  the  best  energies  of  the  corps  to  the 
more  serious  work  of  inaugurating  an  instructive 
museum. 

Minerals 

Arrange  material  from  Dr.  Disbrow's  ample  supplies 
in  mineralogy  in  developmental  or  industrial  series,  as 
from  peat  to  coal,  from  coquina  to  marble,  from  mud 
to  slate,  etc.  Accompany  these  series  with  charts  con- 
taining mounted  pictures,  and  with  a  list  of  books. 
Near  these  exhibits,  available  for  reference,  place  a  few 
books  on  tables.  Each  display  should  be  simply  and 
explicitly  labeled. 

Sculpture 

Cause  to  be  printed  leaflets  treating  in  simple  Eng- 
lish of  the  subjects  shown  in  the  sculpture  room,  and 
place  outside  the  door  of  this  room  an  automatic  stere- 
opticon,  showing  carefully  selected  sets  of  slides  with 
brief  accompanying  labels,  giving  units  of  instruction 
upon  sculpture.  This  is  to  give  those  who  have  no  other 
opportunity  for  appreciative  observation  of  sculpture 
(and  they  are  the  majority  of  Newark's  population)  a 
chance,  first,  to  feel  the  aesthetic  emotions  properly 
produced  by  sculpture,  and,  then,  to  reinforce  this  feel- 
ing by  knowledge  of  the  great  statues  of  the  world.  The 
feeling  gained  from  the  casts  should  carry  over  to  the 
reproductions  displayed  and  discussed  in  the  slides. 
In  the  sculpture  room  should  be  a  full  set  of  stereo- 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  63 

graphs  and  several  stereoscopes  on  a  table  surrounded 
by  chairs  arranged  for  the  free  use  of  visitors. 

Nature  and  Science  Room 

Place  in  the  northeast  room  on  the  third  floor  the 
beginnings  of  several  allied,  science,  applied  art  and 
industry  exhibits,  as  follows: 

Animal  Exhibits 

A.  The  Bee 

A  hive  of  bees 

Models  of  wax 

Enlarged  models  of  bees 

Specimens  of  wax  and  honey 

A  life  history  of  the  bee 

Bee  pictures  and  statistics  in  charts 

A   list   of   literary,   scientific,   and   economic 

treatments  of  bees  to  be  had  in  the  library 
A  few  books  and  pamphlets  placed  conven- 
iently for  use  near  the  exhibit 
The  bee  in  art — exemplifications  of  the  use 

of  the  bee  as  a  motif  in  decoration 

B.  Birds 

A  case  containing  many  pictures  of  birds  for 
lending,  with  notes  attached : — "Notice,  etc." 

A  case  containing  single  birds  labeled  only 
with  numbers,  not  names,  and  accompanied 
by  cards  whereon  students  may  write  the 
names,  and  then,  getting  a  "key  card,"  test 
themselves  for  correctness  in  naming 

A  case  containing  specimens  of  bird  types, 
such  as  waders,  hoppers,  runners,  birds  of 
prey,  etc.,  the  classification  being  popular 
rather  than  scientific.  These  specimens  to 
be  lent  to  schools  and  classes  for  intensive 
study 

Bibliography,  books,  slides,  stereographs,  as 
for  bees 


64  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

The  bird  in  art 

As  soon  as  it  can  be  afforded,  some  moving 
pictures  on  bird  life 

C.  Insects 

Life   histories   of   noxious    and   of    beneficial 
insects 

D.  Fish 

A  treatment  as  similar  as  possible  to  the  fore- 
going 
An  aquarium 

Industrial  Exhibits 

A.  Pottery — the  process 

Kaw  materials 

The  casting  process,  the  wheel  process,  plate 
making,  hand  built  pottery,  and  glaze 

B.  Pottery — the  history 

C.  Textiles 

Spinning  and  weaving,  processes  and  his- 
tory 
Materials 
Wool 

Geographic  distribution 
Animals  from  which  obtained 
Care  of  animals 
Processes  of  preparing  wool 
Fibres 
Cotton 

Treatment  similar  to  that  of  wool 
Silk,  flax,  other  fibres 
Methods 

Felting,  weaving,  netting,  knitting 
Spinning,  by  distaff  and  spindle,  by  wheels 
Weaving 

Navajo  loom,  hand  looms,  horizontal 
and  vertical,  tapestry  loom,  and  mod- 
em machinery 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  65 

Classification  of  textiles 

Brocades,  velvets,  damasks,  etc.,  of  various 
periods  and  places 

Tapestries,  decorations 

Carpets 

Embroideries 

Stamped  and  printed  textiles 

Modern  decorative  textiles 
Practical  investigations 

Fillings  with  sizing  and  clay 

Weighting 

Imitations 

How  to  judge  and  test 

Standard  cloths 

Labels,  guarantees  and  laws 
Budgets  of  clothing,  as:  What  girls  should 

wear  to  school;  what  a  business  woman 

should  wear,  etc. 
Hygiene  of  clothing 
Colors  and  dyes 
Handwork  of  modern  women,  as:  Colonial 

period      (restrained     type)  ;     Victorian 

period    (exuberant    type)  ;    Present    day 

period  (consciously  artistic  type) 
D.     Basketry 

Evolution  of  basket  from  gourd 

Evolution  of  pottery  from  basketry 

Types  of  basketry 

Color  in  basketry 

Forms  and  designs 

Uses 

Symbolism 

Exhibits  of  Habitations  of  Man 
A.     Prehistoric 

Cave  men,  lake  dwellers,  &c. 
Parallels  in  present  day  examples,  of  primi- 
tive conditions 


66  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

B.  Early  historic  types 

Villages  in  Greece,  etc. 

C.  Middle  Ages 

Town  house 
Castle 

D.  The  new  world 

Pioneer  conditions,  as  house  in  stockade,  etc. 
The  house  of  to-day 

E.  Occupations  and  art  of  men  in  the  various  stages 

indicated  by  the  houses  exemplified. 

Botany 

Nothing  has  been  said  of  botany.  The  museum  owns 
a  considerable  and  interesting  collection  of  woods,  the 
gift  of  Governor  Murphy,  and  Dr.  Disbrow  has  many 
specimens  of  useful  plants  and  a  large  herbarium.  As 
in  years  past,  so  in  the  future  the  annual  exhibit  of 
budding  tree  branches  provided  by  the  Park  Commis- 
sion will  probably  be  shown  in  the  Children's  Room. 
It  will  be  easy  to  duplicate  this  in  the  branch  libraries 
and  to  continue  it  in  a  display  of  flowers,  both  wild  and 
cultivated,  as  they  bloom,  giving  both  scientific  and 
common  names,  habitats,  and  the  name  of  the  first 
donor  of  each  species. 

Hygiene,    Education,   Etc. 

Neither  has  any  mention  been  made  of  exhibits  bear- 
ing upon  human  health,  and  education.  The  modern 
movements  in  civic  betterment,  city  planning,  mosquito 
extermination,  shade  tree  work,  all  should  be  recognized 
in  a  department,  and  material  to  aid  the  schools  in 
teaching  hygiene  and  the  citizens  in  furthering  civic 
education  would  easily  fill  another  room. 

Besides  the  accurate  ethnologic  models  for  which 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  67 

these  suggestions  provide,  there  should  be  historic  and 
geographic  scenes,  not  as  small  as  and  less  ornate  than 
those  shown  in  the  Children's  Museum  of  Brooklyn, 
which  could  be  shown  in  branches  and  lent  to  schools 
or  classes,  made  and  arranged  in  portable  shape.  Such 
groups  should  be  so  simply  made  that  the  children 
would  be  moved  to  make  similar  ones  and  similar  mod- 
els made  by  individuals  or  by  groups  of  children  should 
be  given  prominence,  exhibits  being  made  of  them. 

Museum    Loans 

The  Museum  publishes  a  list  of  articles  now  on  hand 
which  it  can  lend  to  schools  or  classes.  To  these  can 
be  added  the  reproductions  of  famous  paintings  now 
owned  by  the  Museum,  and  industrial  material,  geo- 
graphic models,  birds  and  bird  pictures,  insects,  insect 
histories,  stereographs  and  lantern  slides,  and  geo- 
graphic models  as  they  can  be  purchased. 

Leading   to   Other   Museums 

While  this  Museum  should  attempt  at  once  to  reach 
and  to  teach  a  few  simple  things  to  the  very  many  for 
whom  it  will  be  the  only  available  museum  opportunity, 
it  should  not  neglect  the  many  who  might  take  advan- 
tage of  the  New  York  museums  if  they  were  so  directed. 

A  systematic  stimulation  of  visits  to  the  great  gal- 
leries and  museums  across  the  Hudson  could  be  effected 
by  showing  a  full  line  of  pictures  and  reproductions  of 
what  these  museums  display,  by  offering  occasionally 
personally  conducted  tours  to  them,  and  by  referring 
to  their  features  as  fully  as  is  done  to  the  Newark 
Library  books  in  labels  and  catalogs.  In  this  system 
is  included  the  Bronx  Zoo  and  the  New  York  Aquarium. 


Index 
Index 


Pagf 

American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  some  methods...  43 

American  Museums  Association  reports xiv 

Animal  exhibits  should  be  in  Newark's  museums 2,  63 

Applied  art  should  be  included  in  Newark's  museums. ...  2 

Aquarium  exhibit  in  Northeast  Room xiii 

Aquarium,  New   York,  school  classes 43 

Arrangement  principles  29 

Art  museum  should  be  in  Newark's  museum  group 1 

Art  should  be  pre-eminent  in  Newark's  museums 54 

Ashley,  Mr.,  of  Demarest,  N.  J.,  quoted 22 

Association  of  American  Museums,  Reports  helpful xiv 

Astronomical  instruments  as  teaching  devices 33 

Basketry  exhibit  outline 65 

Bather,  Dr.    Arthur,    advice    to    the    curator   of   a    small 

museum 21 

Bather,  Dr.,  on  curators 28 

Bather,  Dr.,  on  museums  of  curious  things 11 

Bee  exhibit,  outline 63 

Beers,  Miss  Jessica,  to  report  on  Buffalo  and  Chicago xi 

Bird  exhibit  in  Northeast  Room xiii 

Bird  exhibit,  outline  63 

Boston  Museum  of  the  Society  of  Natural  History 16 

Boston  Art  Museum  school  work 44 

Boston  Children's  Museum 27 

Boston  Museum  curator  of  science  quoted 43 

Botany  exhibit 66 

Bronx  Zoological  Garden  school  classes 43 

Brooklyn  Children's  Museum  bee  exhibit 46 

Brooklyn  Children's   Museum,  growth  by  gifts 51 

Brooklyn  Children's  Museum  juvenile  workers 26 

Brooklyn  Children's  Museum  results  of  work 59 

Catalogs  as  teaching  devices 36 

Charleston  Museum,  story  of 17 

Chicago  museums 27 

Children,  activities  for,  as  teaching  devices 33 

Children  decoyed  to  a  museum 26 

Children's  room  in  Smithsonian 43 

Children's    Room    should    be    a    feature    of    Newark's 

museums  61 

Cincinnati  Art  Museum,  anecdote 19 

Cincinnati  Art   Museum  school  work 44 

Cincinnati  volunteer  docents  26 

Citizens  of  all  ages  need  education 17 

City  administration  a  museum 7 

City  planning  should  be  shown  in  Newark's  museums 66 

Civic    betterment    should    be    department    of    Newark's 

museums  66 

Classes  as  teaching  devices 32 

College  museums  as  a  class 12 


70  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

Page 

Conditions  of  museums  visited 15 

Connolly,  Miss  Louise,  selected  to  inspect  museums viii 

Co-operation,   difficulties  in  securing 48 

Co-operation,  extent  of 39 

Co-operations  of  educational  agencies 38 

Curator,  The   28 

Dead  museums   15 

Devices  in  museum  teaching 31 

Devices,  list  of 31 

Disbrow,  Dr.,  collection 62 

Disbrow,  Dr.,  work  in  identification 22 

Docentry   29 

Docentry  as  a  teaching  device 32 

Doctrine  of  interest 27 

Dying  tendency  of  some  museums 16 

Education,  progress  of,  by  museums 22 

Educational  agencies,  co-operation  of 38 

Educational  agencies  of  a  city 20 

Educational  aspect  of  museums 17 

Educational  needs  of  citizens 17 

Educational  possibilities   19 

Educational  value  of  museums 1 

Educational    work    should    be    a    feature    of    Newark's 

museums 62 

Endowed  museums  as  a  class 13 

Entertainments  as  teaching  devices 33 

Exchange  system  of  Smithsonian 43 

Exclusive  ownership  basis  for  some  museums 10 

Excursions  as  teaching  devices 33 

Fairbanks  Museum  of  St.  Johnsbury,  Vt 16 

Fine  arts  should  be  included  in  Newark's  museum I 

Fish  exhibit  64 

Flower  tables  as  teaching  devices 33 

Greek  villages,  etc 66 

Groups  as  teaching  devices 37 

Habitat  exhibit  in  Northeast  Room xiii 

Habitat  exhibit  outline 65 

Habitat  group  should  be  a  feature  of  Newark's  Museums.  61 

Herbarium    66 

Hoarding  instinct  basis  for  some  museums 9 

Hygiene  in  Newark's  museums   66 

Indianapolis  Museum  school  work 44 

Industrial  exhibits,  outline 64 

Industrial  geography  in  elementary  schools 57 

Industries    of    Newark    should    be    shown    in    Newark's 

museums 2 

Industry  museum  should  be  in  Newark's  museum  group.  .3,  56 

Insect  exhibit 64 

Insect  exhibit  in  Northeast  Room xiii 

Interest,  the  doctrine  of 27 

Labels  as  teaching  devices 34 


Index 71 

Pace 

Labels  that  teach 35 

Laboratories  as  teaching  devices 33 

Laity  employment  as  a  teaching  device 33 

Learning  by  doing 26 

Lectures  as  teaching  devices 31 

Lectures  outside  the  museum  as  teaching  devices 32 

Lending  collections  should  be  in  Newark's  museums 3 

Lending  objects  as  a  teaching  device 33 

Librarians  as  educational  agents 20 

Libraries  and  museums,  co-operation 38,  40 

Libraries,  lessons  in  use 41 

Live  creatures  as  teaching  devices 31 

Live  museums 16 

Loans  made  to  schools 67 

Lopez,  J.  S.,  on  the  Commercial  Museum  of  Philadelphia.  27 

McMurry's  Method  of  the  Recitation,  noted 24 

Method  of  presentation 28 

Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 14 

Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  some  methods 43 

Middle  Ages,  habitations 66 

Minerals  should  be  in  Newark's  museums 2,  62 

Models  as  teaching  devices 31 

Models  should  be  feature  of  Newark's  museums 66 

Montgomery,   T.   H.,   quoted 17,  24 

Morse,  Edward  S.,  article,  "If  Public  Libraries,  why  not 

Public  Museums"  noted 22 

Mosquito  extermination   should   be   feature   in   Newark's 

museums  66 

Murphy,  Franklin,  President 50 

Museum  history  in  Directory  of  American  Museums....  8 

Museum  methods  summary 46 

Museum  nuclei  in  Northeast  Room xii 

Museum  teaching,  aim  of  24 

Museum  teaching,  where  shall  it  begin 23 

Museum,  three  divisions,  as  named  by  Dr.  Arthur  Bather  21 

Museums  and  libraries,  co-operaton 38,  40 

Museums  and  schools,  co-operation 39,  40 

Museums  as  educational  agents 21 

Museums,  attitude  toward  community 42 

Museums,  inevitable  growth 50 

Museums  visited  by  Miss  Connolly ix 

National  Museum  at  Washington 37 

Nature  and  Science  Room 63 

New  Jersey  Historical  Society  work  should  not  be  dup- 
licated   54 

New  world  habitations 66 

New  York  Aquarium,  school  classes 43 

New  York's  museums  should  be  advertised 67 

Newark  geography  should  be  shown  in  Newark's  museums  3 

Newark  industries  should  be  shown  in  Newark's  museums  2 

Newark  Museums,  advantages  of 50 


72  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

Page 

Newark  Museums,  disadvantages  of 52 

Newark  Museums  should  be  of  practical  value vii 

Newark  Museums,  suggestions  for 53 

Newark  Study  in  Newark's  schools 57 

Nude  statuary  60 

Old  and  new  museums 5 

Paintings,   copies  and  originals,   should  be  in  Newark's 

museums    1 

Patent  office  "model  room" 5 

Philadelphia  Commercial  Museum 56 

Philadelphia  Commercial  Museum,  activities  described  by 

J.  S.  Lopez  27 

Philadelphia  Commercial  Museum  school  work 44 

Philadelphia  schools,  interest  in  museums 27 

Photographs  should  be  in  Newark's  museums 1 

Pittsburgh  Art  Museum  school  work 45 

Pittsburgh  library  work  with  children 41 

Pittsburgh  museums  and  libraries 39 

Pittsburgh  school  visits  costly 48 

Plants  should  be  in  Newark's  museums 2 

Pottery  exhibit  in  Northeast  Room xiii 

Pottery  exhibit  outline 64 

Prehistoric  habitations 65 

Presentation,  method  of 28 

Processes  demonstrated  as  teaching  devices 31 

Professional  men  as  educational  agents 20 

Providence  library  lessons 41 

Providence  Museum  bibliographies  near  cases 49 

Providence  Museum  growth  by  gifts 51 

Providence  Museum  school  work 44 

Psychology  of  the  museum 9 

Public  welfare  workers  as  educational  agents 20 

Rare  objects  not  essential 4 

Rea,  Paul  M.,  Secretary  Association  of  American  Museums  xiv 

Rea,  Paul  M.,  on  the  Museum  of  Charleston,  S.  C 17 

St.  Johnsbury,  Vt.,  Fairbanks  Museum 16,  23 

School  interest  in  museums  in  Philadelphia 27 

School  teachers  as  educational  agents 20 

School  visits  to  museums 48 

Schools  and  museums,  co-operation 39,  40 

Schools,  attitude  toward  museums 47 

Science  should  be  included  in  Newark's  museums 2,  58 

Scratcher  for  decoying  seal,  specimen  label 36 

Sculpture,   copies   and   originals   should   be   in   Newark's 

museums    1 

Sculpture  leaflets  should  be  printed 62 

Shade  tree  work  should  be  feature  in  Newark's  museums  66 

Smithsonian  Institution  inaccessible  and  gloomy 5 

Smithsonian  Institution  children's  room 11 

Smithsonian  Institution  methods 42 

Sponges,  specimen  label, 35 


Index  73 

Page 

Staff  ability  should  keep  ahead  of  amount  of  material 4 

Statue  copies  should  be  in  Newark's  museums 1 

Story-telling  as  a  teaching  device 32 

Subscription-supported  museums  as  a  class 14 

Synoptical    science    collection    should    be    in    Newark's 

museums   2 

Tax-supported  museums  as  a  class 14 

Teachers  as  educational  agents 20 

Teaching  devices  31 

Teaching,  modern,  leads  to  museum  use 6 

Teaching  of  the  museum,  its  aim 24 

Teaching  of  the  museum,  where  shall  it  begin 23 

Teaching  through  the  ear   29 

Teaching  through  the  eye   29 

Textile  exhibit  in  Northeast  Room xiil 

Textile  exhibit  outline 64 

Toledo  Art  Museum  methods 55 

Toledo   Art   Museum    school   work 44 

Toledo  library  lessons 41 

Toledo  school  visits  to  museum 48 

Visual  instruction  by  displays  of  objects 21 

Vocational  education  in  Newark 56 

Volunteer  docents  in  Cincinnati 26 

Ward,  Pres.,  on  the  museum  and  the  library 38 

Wonder  basis  for  some  museums 11 

"Wonder  is  the  beginning  of  Wisdom" 11 

Woods,  collection  of 66 

Worcester  Museum  school  work 44 

Working  models  as  teaching  devices 31 

Workmen  as  educational  agents 20 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums 

A  List  of  Books  and  Articles  on  the  Subject, 

Compiled  by  the  Free  Public  Library  of 

Newark,  N.  J.  for  the  Newark 

Museum  Association 

Issued  as  a  Supplement  to  "The  Educational  Value  of 
Museums"  published   by    the   Museum   Association. 

The  Relation  of  Field  Excursions  to  the  Activities  of 
Local  Museums.  C.  C.  Adams.  Amer.  Assn.  of 
Museums.     Proc.  1910,  p.  112-24. 

The  Hull-House  Labor  Museum.  Jane  Addams.  Chau- 
tauquan,  Sept.,  1903,  p.  60-1. 

Hull  House  Labor  Museum.  Jane  Addams.  Child  in 
the  City,  p.  410-14 372.1  C4321 

The  Labor  Museum  at  Hull-House.  Jane  Addams. 
Current  Literature,  Oct.,  1900,  p.  423-4. 

Museums  in  Connection  with  Public  Libraries.  Cyrus 
Adler  and  Mary  Medlicott.  Amer.  Lib.  Assn.  Proc. 
1898,  p.  95-7. 

Work  of  the  New  York  State  Museum.  C.  B.  Alexan- 
der.   Independent,  Mar.  9,  1914,  p.  346-8. 

Museums  of  Education :  Their  History  and  Use.  B.  R. 
Andrews.     Teachers  College  Record,  Sept.,  1908. 

Natural  History  Museum  and  Workshop  for  the  Chil- 
dren.   W.  N.  Atwood.    Child  in  the  City,  p.  405-9. 

School  Loan  Collections  as  prepared  by  the  Chicago 
Academy  of  Sciences.  F.  C.  Baker.  Amer.  Assn.  of 
Museums.    Proc.  1910,  p.  36-43. 

Functions  of  Museums.  F.  A.  Bather.  Museums  Jour- 
nal, Sept.,  1903,  p.  72-94. 

Functions  of  Museums.  F.  A.  Bather.  Popular  Science 
Mo.,  1904,  p.  210-8. 

How  May  Museums  Best  Retard  the  Advance  of 
Science.  F.  A.  Bather.  Science,  Apr.  30,  1897,  p. 
677-83. 

Natural  History  for  a  Community.  E.  F.  Bigelow. 
Guide  to  Nature,  Oct.,  1910,  p.  233-43. 


The  Newark  Museum  Association 


What  the  Museum  Offers  the  Schools.  L.  M.  Bragg. 
Bull,  of  the  Charleston  Museum,  Dec,  1912,  p.  67-74. 

Museum  as  a  Factor  in  Education.  H.  C.  Bumpus. 
Independent,  Aug.  2,  1906,  p.  269-72. 

The  World  in  Four  Walls.  H.  M.  Hyde  and  A.  S. 
Cheapman.    Everybody's  Mag.,  Oct.,  1911,  p.  537-47. 

Museums  and  Art  Schools.  C.  P.  Clarke.  Independ- 
ent, Mar.  2,  1905,  p.  464-5. 

The  Field  of  the  Small  Museum.  G.  L.  Collie.  Amer. 
Assn.  of  Museums,  Proc.  1908,  p,  23-9. 

Union  of  Library  and  Museum.  W.  T.  Conklin.  Public 
Libraries,  Jan.,  1903,  p.  3-8,  Feb.,  1903,  p.  47-9. 

Taking  Nature  to  the  People.  F.  B.  Copley.  Collier's. 
Dec.  17,  1910,  p.  18. 

The  Museum  and  the  Teaching  of  Art  in  the  Public 
Schools.  Kenyon  Cox.  Scribner's,  July,  1912,  p. 
124-8. 

Gloom  of  the  Museum.  J.  C.  Dana.  Newarker,  Oct., 
1913,  p.  389-404. 

Evolution  of  Museums  in  England  and  America;  What 
has  Recently  been  done  to  Increase  Their  Educa- 
tional Value  to  the  People.  Alice  Dinsmoor.  Crafts- 
man, Mar.,  1907,  p.  692-711. 

The  Aim  of  the  Public  Museum.  G.  A.  Dorsey.  Amer. 
Assn.  of  Museums,  Proc.  1907,  p.  97-100. 

Museums  Illustrative  of  Education.  John  Eaton.  Nat. 
Educ.  Assn.  Proc.  1881,  appendix,  p.  50-67. 

Educational  Value  of  Museums.  O.  C.  Farrington. 
Nat.  Educ.  Assn.  Proc.  1902,  p.  765-71. 

Museum  as  an  Educational  Institution.  O.  C.  Farring- 
ton.   Education,  Apr.,  1897,  p.  481-9. 

Museum  Study  by  Chicago  Public  Schools.  O.  C.  Far- 
rington.   Science,  Jan.  31, 1902,  p.  181-4.       , 

Museums :  Their  Rise,  Use,  etc.  British  Assn. ;  Inaugu- 
ral Address.  W.  H.  Flower.  Nature,  Sept.  12,  1889, 
p.  463-9. 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums  3 

Suggestions  for  the  Formation  and  Arrangement  of  a 
Museum  of  Natural  History  in  Connection  with  a 
Public  School.  W.  H.  Flower.  Nature,  Dec.  26, 
1889,  p.  177-8. 

Philadelphia  Commercial  Museum:  history  and  pur- 
pose. R.  A.  Foley.  World's  Work,  Oct.,  1901,  p. 
1258-60. 

On  the  Educational  Uses  of  Museums.  Edward 
Forbes.    Amer.  Jour,  of  Science,  Nov.,  1854,  p.  340-52. 

The  Beginning  of  Museum  Work  in  Libraries.  E.  W. 
Gaillard.     Public  Libraries,  Jan.,  1903,  p.  9-11. 

Children's  Museum  as  an  Educator.  A.  B.  Gallup.  Pop- 
ular Science  Mo.,  Apr.,  1908,  p.  371-9. 

The  Essentials  of  a  Children's  Museum.  A.  B.  Gallup. 
Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums,  Proc.  1908,  p.  83-93. 

The  Work  of  a  Children's  Museum.  A.  B.  Gallup. 
Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums,  Proc.  1907,  p.  144-9. 

Work  of  a  Children's  Museum.  A.  B.  Gallup.  Nature 
Study  Rev.,  May,  1906,  p.  153-63. 

Educative  Value  of  the  Modern  Museum.  Walter  Gil- 
bey.  Nineteenth  Century,  Oct.,  1909,  p.  663-72 ;  same 
article,  Living  Age,  Jan.  1,  1910,  p.  18-20. 

The  Problem  of  the  Label.  B.  I.  Oilman.  Amer.  Assn. 
of  MuseumI,  Proc.  1911,  p.  15-26. 

Museums  of  the  Future.  G.  B.  Goode.  U.  S.  National 
Museum  Report,  1889,  p.  427-45;  same  separate, 
507G61. 

Museum  Methods,  by  G.  B.  Goode.  U.  S.  National 
Museum   Report,    1893,    p.   3-192;    same    separate, 

507G611. 

Place  of  Museums  in  Education.  Thomas  Greenwood. 
Science,  Nov.  3,  1893,  p.  246-8. 

Educational  Museum  of  the  Cleveland  Schools.  W.  M. 
Gregory.    Jour,  of  Education,  Oct.  24,  1912,  p.  431-2. 

Nature-Study  in  a  Museum.  D.  I.  Griffin.  Nature- 
Study  Review,  Feb.,  1909,  p.  56-62. 


The  Newark  Museum  Association 


f: 


The  Educational  Work  of  a  Small  Museum.  D.  I. 
Griffin.  Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums,  Proc.  1907,  p.  139- 
44. 

Museums  and  their  Value  to  a  City.  A.  H.  Griffith. 
Amer.  City,  April,  1911,  p.  229-31. 

Methods  and  Uses  of  a  Research  Museum.  Joseph  Gris- 
wold.    Popular  Science  Mo.,  Aug.,  1910,  p.  163-9. 

The  Science  Museum :  a  Factor  in  Intellectual  and 
Industrial  Progress.  C.  W.  Hall.  Amer.  Assn.  of 
Museums,  Proc.  1907,  p.  155-9. 

Docentry:  a  New  Profession.  M.  B.  Hartt.  Outlook, 
Mar.  26,  1910,  p.  701-8. 

Carnegie  Museum.  W.  J.  Holland.  Popular  Science 
Mo.,  May,  1901,  p.  1-20. 

The  Link  between  Library  and  Museum.  A.  H.  Hop- 
kins.   Public  Libraries,  Jan.,  1903,  p.  13-5. 

Die  Auslandischen  Schulmuseen.     Max  Hiibner,  1906. 

371.6H871 

Die  Deutschen  Schulmuseen.     Max  Hubner,  1904, 

371.6H87 

On  Museum  Education.  Jonathan  Hutchinson. 
Museums  Journal,  July,  1908,  p.  5-23. 

Use  and  Abuse  of  Museums.  Wm.  S.  Jevons  in  Methods 
of  Social  Reform,  p.  53-81.     1881 304 J53 

Live  Lessons  in  Civics :  Museums.  F.  H.  Krause.  Teach- 
ers' Magazine,  Sept.,  1907,  p.  18-9. 

To  Increase  the  Number  of  Visitors  to  our  Museums. 
G.  F.  Kunz.  Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums,  Proc.  1911, 
p.  87-90. 

New  Museum  Idea.  Sherman  Langdon.  World's  Work, 
July,  1906,  p.  7710-2. 

The  Museum  in  the  Small  Library.  C.  F.  Laurie.  Pub- 
lic Libraries,  Apr.,  1903,  p.  154-5. 

Educational  and  Economic  Value  of  Museums  and 
Exhibitions.  Leoni  Levi.  Jour,  of  the  Soc.  of  Arts, 
Oct.  16,  1874,  p.  954-8. 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums 5 

The  School  and  the  Show  Case.    J.  S.  Lopez.    Harper's 

Weekly,  Feb.  24, 1912,  p.  13. 
Labels  for  Objects  in  Museums.    F.  A.  Lucas.    Printing 

Art,  Aug.,  1909,  p.  345-8,  and  Sept.,  1909,  p.  25-31. 
Museum  Labels  and  Labeling.     F.  A.  Lucas.     Amer. 

Assn.  of  Museums,  Proc.  1911,  p.  91-101. 
Museums  in  their  Relation  to  Libraries.    Caroline  Mc- 

Ilvaine.    Public  Libraries,  Jan.,  1905,  p.  6-7. 
Some  Experiments  of  a  Small  Museum.    H.  L.  Madison. 

Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums,  Proc.  1912,  p..  115-7. 
Positive  Function  for  School  Museums.    F.  A.  Manny. 

Elem.  School  Teacher,  Nov.,  1907,  p.  152-3. 
Circulating  Museums.    F.  J.  Mather,  jr.  Nation,  Feb.  16, 

1905,  p.  128-9. 
Museum  Extension  in  Schools.  F.  J.  Mather,  jr.  Nation, 

Nov.  1,  1906,  p.  364-5. 
Educational  Efficiency  of  Our  Museums.    A.  G.  Mayer. 

North  Amer.  Rev.,  Oct.,  1903,  p.  564-9. 
Studies  of  Museums  of  New  York,  Albany,  etc.    A.  B. 

Meyer,  1905    507M57 

AVork  of  the    Pennsylvania    Museum    and    School    of 

Industrial  Art.    L.  W.  Miller.    Annals  of  the  Amer. 

Academy,  Jan.,  1909,  p.  105-10. 
Expansion    of  the    Usefulness    of    Natural    History 

Museums.    T.  H.  Montgomery,  jr.    Popular  Science 

Mo.,  July,  1911,  p.  36-44. 
If  Public  Libraries  why  not  Public  Museums?    E.  S. 

Morse.     U.    S.    National   Museum,   Report   1893,   p. 

771-80. 
Museums:  Their  History  and  Their  Use.     David  Mur 

ray.     3v.  1904  507  M96 

State    Museum    and    State    Progress.     H.  F.  Osborn. 

Science,  Oct.  18,  1912,  p.  493  504. 
The  Social  Museum  as  an  Instrument  of  University 

Teaching.    F.  G.  Peabody.    1911. 
The  School  Museum.    A.  C.  Perry  in  Problems  of  the 

Elementary  School,  p.  177-84 371  P421 


The  Newark  Museum  Association 


The  Staten  Island  Museum.      C.  L.  Pollard.      Amer. 

Assn.  of  Museums,  Proc.  1909,  p.  25-31. 
The  Educational  Work  of  the  Davenport  Museum.    E. 

K.  Putnam.    Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums,  Proc.  1908,  p. 

63-72. 
The  Educational  Museum  of  the  Public  Schools  of  St. 

Louis.    C.  G.  Eathmann.    Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums, 

Proc.  1908,  p.  39-56. 
Educational  Museum  of  St.  Louis  Schools.    C.  G.  Rath- 

mann.     School  Journal,  Jan.,  1909,  p.  183-4. 
The  Educational  Museum    of  the    St.   Louis    Public 

Schools.     C.  G.  Rathmann.     U.  S.  Bureau  of  Educ. 

Bull.,  1912,  V.  2,  p.  18-26. 
The  Children's  Wonder  House.     Sidney  Reid.     Inde- 
pendent, Jan.  4,  1912,  p.  30-6. 
The  Work  of  an  Instructor  in  the  American  Museum 

of  Natural  History.  Mrs.  Roesler.  Museums  Journal, 

Mar.,  1909,  p.  303-13. 
Newer  Education.      H.  E.  Rood.      Harper's    Weekly, 

Apr.  17,  1909,  p.  16-7. 
Docent  Service  at  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts.     L.  E. 

Rowe.    Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums,  Proc.  1911,  p.  10-5. 
A   Gallery   Leaflet   for   Art   Museums.     L.    E.   Rowe. 

Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums,  Proc.  1910,  p.  75-7. 
The  Educational  Work  of  the  Buffalo  Society  of  Nat- 
ural   Sciences    in    Co-operation    with    the    Public 

Schools.    H.  R.  Rowland.    Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums, 

Proc.  1909,  p.  74-83. 
Museum  or  Picture  Gallery:  its  Function.    John  Rus- 

kin.     Art  Journal,  June,  1880,  p.  161-3,  Aug.,  1880, 

p.  225-6. 
Practical  Value  of  Industrial  Museums.    Alfred  Sang. 

Engineering  Mag.,  Oct.,  1906,  p.  1-9. 
Uses  of  Educational  Museums.    F.  J.  Skiff.    Nat.  Educ. 

Assn.  Proc.  1905,  p.  80-5. 


The  Educational  Value  of  Museums 7 

Possible  Connections    between    the  Museum    and    the 

School.     A.  D.  Slocum.     Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums. 

Proc.  1911,  p.  55-67. 
Educational  Work  of  a  Great  Museum.    H.  I.  Smith. 

Science,  Nov.  15,  1912,  p.  659-64. 
The  Museum  in  Educational  Work.     Frederick  Starr. 

Educat  Rev.,  Mar.,  1892,  p,  254-9. 
Public  Utility  of  Museums.    Lord  Sudeley.    Nineteenth 

Century,  Dec,  1913,  p.  1211-9. 
Popular  versus   Scientific   Arrangements   of   Museum 

Exhibits.    J.  E.  Talmage.    Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums. 

Proc.  1909,  p.  139-40. 
Educational  Work  of  the  Philadelphia  Museums.    C.  R. 

Toothaker.     Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums.     Proc.  1909, 

p.  60-4. 
The  Aims  of  Museums,  with  Special  Reference  to  the 

Public   Museum   of  the   City   of  Milwaukee.     H.  L. 

Ward.     Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums.     Proc.   1907,  p. 

100-6. 
The  Labeling  in  Museums.    H.  L.  Ward.    Amer.  Assn. 

of  Museums.    Proc.  1906,  p.  42-5. 
Pioneer  Museum  Work  in  China.     J.  S.  Whitewright. 

Museums  Journal,  Feb.,  1909,  p.  266-77. 
Education  Museums  of  Vertebrates.     B.   G.   Wilder. 

Science,  Sept.  11,  1885,  p.  222-4. 
A  Library  Museum  for  Use  in  the  Common  Schools  of 

the  City.    W.  P.  Wilson.    Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums. 

Proc.  1907,  p.  150-2. 
The  Organization  and  Development  of  the  Philadelphia 

Museums.    W.  P.  Wilson.    Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums. 

Proc.  1907,  p.  133-9. 
Museums  and  their  Purposes.    N.  H.  Winchell.  Science, 

July  24,  1891,  p.  43-6. 
Dullness  of  Museums.    J.  G.  Wood.     Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury, Mar.,  1887,  p.  384-96. 
The  Children's  Museum  at  Olympia.     Museums  Jour- 
nal, July,  1914,  p.  1-5. 


8  The  Newark  Museum  Association 

Children's  Museum  of  Brooklyn  Institute.  Sci.  Amer., 
May  12,  1900,  p.  296. 

Do  Museum  Lectures  Pay?  Amer.  Assn.  of  Museums. 
Proc.  1908,  p.  99-107. 

Example  of  What  a  Museum  of  Safety  can  Accomplish. 
Newark  Sunday  Call,  Feb.  15, 1914. 

Geographical  Collections  or  Class-room  Museums.  The 
Philadelphia  Museums,  1910,  26  p. 

German  Museum  of  Masterpieces  of  Science  and  Indus- 
try, by  our  Berlin  Correspondent.  Sci.  Amer.,  Sept. 
4,  1909,  p.  161-2. 

M.  Mabilleau  on  the  Musee  Social.  Outlook,  Mar.  29, 
1902,  p.  787-8. 

Museum  Extension  Work  in  Chicago.  Science,  Feb.  16. 
1912,  p.  261-2. 

Museum  Guides  and  Education  by  Several  Guides. 
Museums  Journal,  Oct.,  1912,  p.  112-7. 

Museums  as  Instruments  of  Education.  Art  Journal, 
Oct.,  1853,  p.  282-4. 

Museums  as  Places  of  Popular  Culture.  Science,  Apr. 
15,  1904,  p.  610-2. 

Public  Utility  of  Museums :  reprint  of  letters  and  lead- 
ing articles  in  the  "Times"  and  other  papers,  and  of 
the  official  report  of  the  debate  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
1913    708  P96 


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